BY JOHN CONLEY

Associate Editor

The budget, school snow days and OPEB are among the topics Wyoming County's legislative representatives expect to be dealing with in the 2010 session.

"Money is going to be tight," said Del. Linda Phillips, now in the second year of her first term office "2011 will be the last (fiscal) year we have the (stimulus) funds coming in. We intend to use those with the DHHR and Medicaid, so those areas are not cut at all.

"What we're going to do (with the budget) is to make sure we put ourselves into a good position in the next four or five years," stated Sen. Mike Green.

"The Governor has issued across-the-board cuts to all agencies," he said, " but I think maybe it's being border line disingenuous at this point. We're not really cutting any services and we're hoping through attrition we can not fill spots (vacated by retirement or departure) and cut those agencies that way.

"We're taking stimulus money now and backfilling those cuts (in the agencies)," he pointed out.

Still, Green says, the Legislature faces tough decisions when dealing with fiscal 2013 and 2014.

"I'd like to see us make some of those budget cuts now," he remarked. "If we start cutting some services now, it would lessen the pain (in the years ahead)."

Sen. Richard Browning says West Virginia is better positioned than most state to deal with the national recession.

"We've been fiscally conservative over the past 20 years," he explained. "We have some money put back, but we're trying to be prudent with that because we know budget years 2012 and 2013 will be worse than this year."

The OPEB (Other Post-Employment Benefits) issue, which finds the Legislature and other government entities battling over who is responsible for employee retirement benefits, also affects budget concerns, Browning noted.

"When you don't have much growth in your budget, the expenditures that grow, like PEIA and Medicaid costs, eat up the revenue and you don't have anything left for new things or to play off old debts like OPEB," he said.

"We need at least $150 million as well as changes in the system to start paying down that debt," Browning commented. "We're going to try to do that without raising additional taxes."

Browning is a member of an ad hoc committee which is exploring the OPEB matter. "Our state's going to default if we don't start fixing it," he said.

The school calendar got headlines last year when bad weather left a number of counties without the required 180 instructional days.

Most southern West Virginia counties missed a week of classes earlier in this month due to snow and severe cold.

"The school calendar will be coming up again." Browning said. "Other countries are out pacing us (in education benchmarks) and there's a reason why. They're being educated more. That's not the only reason, but that's one. Making sure we get at least 180 days is a step in the right direction."

"The issue is going to have to be addressed in some way," Phillips noted.

"Last year, the Senate passed the 180-day calendar 34-0 and were on the same page with the administration on that," Green pointed out. "We gave more flexibility to the counties on starting and ending dates (for the school year). Obviously, there were different views on the House side.

"I think we have to find a way to keep those children in the classroom and adequately compensate the teachers for their time," he added.

Phillips hopes to see a convicted drug dealer registry created which would follow the model of the sex offender registry.

"If an individual is convicted in Wyoming County and he serves his time and moves to Berkeley County, you would have the option to go on the Internet and look it up," she stated.

She also hopes to increase penalties for a person who unlawfully harms a police dog.

"One of our (PIneville) patrolmen, Chris Spears, indicated our statute is not very strict on this," Phillips said. "These animals are highly trained and expensive. So if someone maims or kills one, there needs to a way to have restitution."

Browning wants to continue to boost tourism for the state and the NInth District.

"We're within a seven-hour drive of 75 percent of the American population," he observed, "and we ned to maximize that."

The recent choice of Fayette County as home to national Boy Scout meetings points up that need, he said. "We're going to have hundreds of kids coming into the southern part of the state yearly, and those kids are going to have to have something to do. And we're sitting on the fringes of being able to provide that need."

Browning wants to see a statewide vision developed to make the state "the ultimate vacation spot."

He hopes to see links between ATV and whitewater sites and connections among the the trails in southern West Virginia "so that someone can truly spend a day riding and then stay at a resort or campground and then go to another trail or whitewater the next day."

Green says a cost of living increase for retirees is an issue of particular importance to him.

"Retirees have not had an increase since 1996, and when you look at inflation and the cost of necessities, to not get any increase is one of the biggest injustices," he noted.

"We will continue to push for it, but we're not having much luck getting traction," he said.

The senator says he would like to look at a year-end $20,000 tax credit on income.

"I consider myself very fiscally responsible, but people on fixed incomes are struggling so hard right now," he said.

All three legislators spoke about the importance of coal, which faces new challenges with the federal government's cap and trade legislation. (Efforts to contact Del. Daniel Hall were unsuccessful.)

"We need show our coal industry that we are supportive of them and try to fix what the federal government wants fixed," Phillips said.

"The coal industry is the backbone of West Virginia's financial future," Green stated.