Local News
OPEB delay clears house
CHARLESTON — Delegates moved Thursday to give school boards a one-year breather in paying medical costs of retirees, but the lopsided approval proved nothing more than a gesture.
Over in the more conservative Senate, the bill was a goner, even before arrival.
“It’s still dead over here,” Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, said after the 82-14 passage by the House.
Gov. Joe Manchin wanted to give school boards a one-year moratorium until the Other Post-Employment Benefits issue can be more carefully examined.
But Helmick’s committee only a day earlier rejected the idea and instead formed a special interims panel to look over the issue before the 2010 session starts. “The committee just doesn’t have a real appetite for it right now,” Helmick said.
OPEB’s liability is pegged at $7 billion, or twice the old red ink that had accumulated in the workers’ compensation system before it was privatized.
“We can talk intelligently about it,” Helmick said of his special panel.
“We need some type of plan. We just can’t simply delay, and that’s what we’re doing (in Manchin’s bill).”
Republican lawmakers put up a futile battle against it on the House floor.
“This is a one-year moratorium to hide debt and cook our financial reports from which the government will sell bonds,” Delegate Daryl Cowles, R-Morgan, complained.
“That bothers me and worries me. It creates some big trouble.”
Delegate Jonathan Miller, R-Berkeley, said the same tack was taken in other states and failed.
“This is not a solution at all,” he said.
Miller likened it to taking a 30-year home mortgage to a bank and trying to get it considered as a one-year loan.
“That doesn’t solve anything,” Miller said. “It doesn’t even buy you any time.”
In defense of the bill, Delegate Sam Cann, D-Harrison, said no one can say for now how to properly deal with OPEB.
But to give school boards some breathing room for one year is “appropriate,” he said.
“Until we answer these underlying questions, I’m not sure that we haven’t cooked the books the other way,” he added.
Named to Helmick’s panel were Sens. Bill Laird, D-Fayette; Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha; Robert Plymale, D-Wayne; Roman Prezioso, D-Marion; Richard Browning, D-Wyoming; Dave Sypolt, R-Preston; and Mike Hall, R-Putnam.
- Local News
-
-
Jim Justice named Business Leader of the Year
The Greater Greenbrier Chamber of Commerce honored Jim Justice as the 2010 Business Leader of the Year during the organization’s annual meeting at The Greenbrier resort Tuesday evening.
-
22 dogs euthanized in Summers County animal cruelty case
Twenty-two dogs have been euthanized after Summers County authorities say they found the dogs “sick and in distress” and living in “disgusting” conditions.
-
Owner of Beaver Hardware optimistic about future of business
Julie Mills lost everything in her warehouse at Beaver Hardware when weekend floodwaters damaged the inventory in the almost century old store.
-
Health care provider to receive federal funds
Community Health Systems Inc., has been awarded $1.8 million in federal funds to help citizens of Raleigh, Fayette and Wyoming counties continue to receive quality accessible health care at affordable costs, said U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall on Monday.
-
Public meeting set
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will host a public meeting Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Summers County Memorial Building, 97 Park Ave., Hinton, to provide the latest information about the Bluestone Dam.
-
SCHOOL CLOSINGS and DELAYS
Click HERE to go to the West Virginia Department of Education with up-to-date school closings and delays by county.
-
DEP seeking public comment on impaired streams, lakes
The Department of Environmental Protection has developed a draft list of West Virginia’s impaired streams and lakes.
-
Beckley to host SkillsUSA state leadership competition
Beckley will play host next weekend to 540 students from throughout West Virginia competing in the SkillsUSA State Leadership and Skills Conference.
- Calendar — Wednesday, March 17, 2010
-
Beckley woman dies in Woodlawn Avenue fire
A Beckley woman died Monday night in a fire at her home in the 300 block of Woodlawn Avenue. The cause of the blaze is under investigation, according to Beckley Fire Department Chief Kevin Taylor.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Jim Justice named Business Leader of the Year
