Gas tax, pensions on agenda for session

By Mannix Porterfield

Gov. Joe Manchin issued a formal call late Friday that spells out the details of the issues he wants lawmakers to tackle in a special legislative session next week.

On the agenda will be a change in the gasoline tax, municipal police and fire pensions, and Other Post Employment Benefits payments.

Manchin has made it his practice to call special sessions when lawmakers are at the Capitol for monthly interims meetings to save on costs, and this is another example.

Spokesman Matt Turner said the plan is to cover all items on the agenda during the three-day interims.

“That’s what we’re hoping for — wrap it up in three days,” he said.

In Beckley this week, Manchin acknowledged he wants legislative action to stabilize the built-in escalator in the gasoline tax, one that is based on the retail sale prices between July and October each year.

That tax was put on hold twice in recent years, once through executive order and once by an act of the Legislature, causing the forfeiture of some $140 million in revenue that normally is directed to the state highway fund.

“We’re concerned about the road fund,” Turner said.

“This is designed to stabilize, but it is not designed to suddenly throw money at the road fund or to increase taxes on anybody.”

For several months, talk has been growing about a special session so lawmakers can stanch the bleeding in municipal police and fire pension funds, some of which are threatening to push their towns over the precipice of bankruptcy.

The administration had been in talks with a special task force spearheaded by Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, chairman of the Senate Pensions Committee.

“That’s one of the drivers of the special session,” Turner said.

A tentative proposal calls for sealing existing accounts and setting up 40-year amortization plans, while devising fresh funds for new hires.

Turner said another issue is one that would alter the code dealing with the way counties make payments in post-employment benefits.

“In a sense, this would allow them to defer some of the payments for a year,” he said.

The first item on the agenda for the session, which will begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday, is a resolution honoring Sen. Robert C. Byrd as the longest-serving congressman in United States history.

Other items include:

- Legislation relating to orders of expungement and clarifying that records of the governor, the secretary of state and the Legislature pertaining to a grant of pardon are not subject to an order of expungement.

- Legislation relating to the issuance of federal recovery zone bonds, authorizing counties to issue recovery zone bonds, allocating a recovery zone bond volume cap and establishing a procedure for the reallocation, suballocation and waiver of the recovery zone bond volume cap.

- Legislation relating to the state retirement systems and amending the code to bring the state retirement systems into compliance with certain provisions of the Internal Revenue Code.

- Legislation relating to absentee voting for uniform services members and citizens residing outside the United States and establishing a pilot program for the May 11, 2010, primaries.

- Legislation relating to definitions and the tracking of credits awarded under the Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Act; deleting supercritical technology from the definition of advanced coal technology; allowing credits for certain energy efficiency and demand-side projects; maintaining the confidentiality of certain credit pricing data; and allowing the Public Service Commission to coordinate with certain entities to track and award credits.

- Certain supplementary appropriation bills.

- Ceremonial and memorial resolutions.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com