The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Today's Front Page

May 5, 2010

Raleigh wants coal severance tax on special session agenda

By Mannix Porterfield Register-Herald Reporter

BECKLEY — Unwilling to wait another year, Raleigh County joined a list of fellow coal producing counties Tuesday in asking Gov. Joe Manchin to make room on the agenda of next week’s special session for a technically-flawed bill giving them the first 5 percent of severance taxes collected from coal operators.

On the final night of the 2010 session, the measure passed but was never enrolled after it was learned a team of conferees worked on the wrong section of it.

As a result, Manchin never saw the proposal on his desk.

Kanawha County became the first to ask Manchin to include the bill in the special session, tentatively set to begin May 13, two days after the primary balloting.

“I think a majority of the coal-producing counties are going to do a resolution and ask the governor,” Commission President John Humphrey said afterward.

“To me, that sends him a pretty strong message that counties would like for him to at least look at this in the special session. It’s important to the coal-producing counties, and even the non-producing counties are in favor of it.”

Humphrey said he hopes Manchin will view the bill as one that did clear the Legislature on the final night of the session and merely contained a technical flaw that prevent it from being enrolled.

“I think the governor will definitely consider it,” he said.

“Very seldom do you see him go against a bill that made it through both houses and it was more or less in the writing of the bill that was the problem.”

As written, the bill would return the first 5 percent of severance to the coal-producing counties over a five-year period.

That means Raleigh County would reap an extra bonanza of $299,017, based on figures kept by the West Virginia Coal Association. At the end of the five years, the county would have pocketed a total of $4,485,257. Boone stands to gain the most, a cumulative $10,907,941. Kanawha faces a potential loss of $198,129 extra money in each of the five years.

“There’s a lot we could do with it,” Humphrey said.

Under law, none of the money can be applied to salaries in county government, or the creation of new positions.

“Most of that would go toward water and sewer projects in the county,” the commission president said.

In a recent interview, Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, predicted the coal severance legislation ultimately would be approved, but it might have to wait another year. Helmick was doubtful that it would resurface in the year’s first extraordinary session.

Instead, the finance chairman said he expects to see the matter become a year-long topic by a legislative interims panel.

Helmick said he favors the bill as a matter of principle, that local governments are in better position to spend tax dollars and make decisions than state government.

What’s more, the chairman said earlier, coal counties have wrongfully been given second-class status, when, in fact, they have been the major driver in financing state government.

“Coal counties and coal people have been shunned and looked down upon as being a lesser entity and pulling the state down,” he said.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com

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