February 2, 2012
Senate speeds up OPEB approval in national first
By Mannix Porterfield Register-Herald Reporter
CHARLESTON — West Virginia can now lay claim to being first in one of the good categories — moving to retire an outstanding debt in health care benefits paid to retired state workers.
Senators made short shrift of the plan Wednesday, suspending the chamber’s rules and passing the payoff by a 32-0 vote.
Normally, it takes three days to get a showdown on legislation.
Sen. Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, pointed out that West Virginia became the first state to achieve such a plan to satisfy a huge liability, calling it “monumental.”
“We should hold our heads high on this vote today,” he said.
Under the plan, the product of several years’ toil, engineered largely by Sen. Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, some $30 million from the personal income tax will be dedicated to retiring the debt over three decades, once that money erases the remaining red ink in the old workers’ compensation system.
Sen. Robert Plymale, D-Wayne, said another $5 million will be placed into an employee trust fund to take care of workers hired after July 1, 2010.
Known as Other Post-Employment Benefits, or OPEB, the debt once stood in excess of $10 billion, but was chopped in half last year by reforms imposed by the Public Employees Insurance Board.
A key component of the Senate bill provides that the state must pick up the tab for employees inside the school aid formula, thus providing counties with sought-after relief.
“The important measures are taking this off the county boards of education, providing cost containment language and taking care of those people hired after July 1, 2010,” said Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association.
“This was a really good first step,” he said of SB459, sent out only a day earlier by the Senate Finance Committee.
“We will continue to work to get premiums down. We will work so the cost is not shifted to retirees.”
Plymale told fellow senators the cost local boards might face for employees outside the formula “varies from county to county.”
“We are the first state to handle this from a comprehensive nature with a large unfunded liability,” he said.
“Some states do not even offer benefits to retirees. We are the first with any substantial amount of unfunded liability that addressed this.”
Senate President Jeffrey Kessler, D-Marshall, likewise made a point of this, telling reporters, “We are ahead of the curve.”
“We’ve shown the rest of the nation how to get things done,” he said.
Kessler said he expects the House of Delegates to follow suit soon and pass the bill that found Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin “intricately involved” in its shaping.
“We don’t pat ourselves on the back very often around here,” the Senate leader said.
“But the people of this state need to understand their government is working and very efficiently, and we’re tackling the tough issues while many states are maybe avoiding them or kicking those issues down the curb.”
Since the session opened Jan. 11, he noted, the Legislature has dealt with the proposed Marcellus shale cracker plant and moved to take care of the OPEB debt.
“Our fiscal house is completely in order,” he said.
“It sets West Virginia on a path where the future is extremely, extremely bright.”
Kessler acknowledged the Legislature still faces some heavy lifting in the weeks ahead, such as the anti-drug legislation and education reform.
But he voiced confidence the tasks can be accomplished.
“There’s not been anything we’ve not been able to tackle, accomplish and get done,” Kessler said.
“I’m bullish on our state. This Legislature and governor worked very hard in tackling the tough issues.”