The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Local News

January 5, 2010

OPEB legislation possible within months

By Mannix Porterfield

Before this month is out, a special committee tasked to resolve the staggering liability of post-employment health care for West Virginia’s retired public workers could be in the drafting room with corrective legislation.

Until then, the committee, appointed by Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, has a good deal of work to accomplish, says its leader, Sen. Brooks McCabe.

Ever since the November special session ended, with lawmakers rejecting Gov. Joe Manchin’s bid to give county school boards a one-year moratorium in what are known as Other Post-Employment Benefits, the committee has been dissecting the various angles at stake in the issue.

No one underestimates the seriousness of it, either.

With a liability that stands at $7.8 billion — far exceeding the morass years ago in the workers’ compensation debt — McCabe has cautioned the OPEB debt threatens West Virginia’s very solvency if nothing is done soon.

“I would think by next week we ought to begin to get a handle on it,” McCabe, D-Kanawha, said Tuesday, fully a week before the 2010 regular session opens.

Panelists, among them Sens. Bill Laird, D-Fayette, and Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, likely will hear from an actuary hired by the Senate to analyze all the factors.

By mid-January, all the pieces should fall into place, and by month’s end, McCabe said, the committee likely will produce “a multi-dimensional plan that addresses the various components to try to bring it back into bounds.”

So far, no specifics are in the works.

“My sense is about half it will be administrative and half is legislative as far as looking at the whole mix of what we ought to be doing,” McCabe said.

“What we’re trying to find out is, what is that collection of things we ought to address. Once we get a sense of that — which I would hope frankly in the next two weeks we would have a pretty good feel for — presumably we’ll be drafting legislation and working the actuaries to make sure we are actually doing what’s necessary to right the ship, so to speak.”

McCabe applauded his fellow senators for putting in the extra duty to work on the matter, noting it will be easier to assemble once January interims start Sunday.

In the past month, he noted, the committee has been aided by various constituent groups, such as the County Commissioners Association of West Virginia, the West Virginia Association of Counties and the West Virginia Municipal League, in an effort to maximize feedback and recommendations.

“That’s really been invaluable to understand the situation from the different constituents’ perspective,” McCabe said.

“That’s what we’re trying to look at and say, ‘How do all the pieces of fit together and what are the multiple things we need to do to try to correct it?’ And not insignificantly, we’ve got to find out how to fund some of this.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com

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