BLUEFIELD — State Senator H. Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, put in a long day on Friday serving on a panel put together by The Associated Press to get a handle on the major issues facing the legislature this year. The state legislators will go back into session on Wednesday with a plateful of major issues waiting for them when they arrive.
“I jotted down several of the key points,” Chafin, the senate majority leader said. “The PEIA (Public Employees Insurance Agency) is a hot priority for everyone, and the Department of Transportation is facing some major challenges. About the only roads getting built now are the public-private roads that the coal companies are building,” Chafin said.
“Coal and coal gasification will be a major issue this year,” Chafin said. “We have a major plant coming into the district, but we have to be able to come up with a carbon sequestration plan. Producing gas from coal results in a lot of carbon dioxide, and we have to be able to deal with that byproduct.”
Chafin said that “assorted health care issues,” drilling and extracting natural resources from state parks and home rule issues. “So many small towns like in the McDowell County area need to consolidate so they can have more resources, but how do you do it?” Chafin said. “We have some other issues like water rights issues, teacher retirement, changes in DUI legislation, the second tier Promise Scholarship program and broadband services,” he said. “We’ve been behind on broadband services, but we’ve been working hard on it.”
Despite the state’s continued declining economy, Chafin said legislators will decide what they should do with a $100 million surplus. He said the debate over the surplus will likely center on using it for economic development or for reducing taxes. Other issues on the horizon include rural health needs, infrastructure needs, wellness education, municipal employee pension problems, re-organization of civil service and recognizing national teacher certificates to help ease the teacher shortages especially in the eastern panhandle counties.
Chafin pointed out that there are similarities between Virginia and West Virginia, but while the Old Dominion stands as the best state in the U.S., at attracting business, “we’re something like 48th in several publications that measure that data,” Chafin said. “Virginia has always had districts like the one my brother runs,” Chafin said of his brother, Andy Chafin who serves as director of the Cumberland Plateau Planning District Commission.
“If you look at West Virginia, it’s really five different states with the eastern and northern panhandles each having their own strengths and challenges, the northern part of the state with its unique challenges, the Kanawha Valley and the southern coalfields,” Chafin said. “I have yet to see a plan to deal with all the diverse needs of our state.”
Chafin said that Mingo County has done some things right, but other parts of his sixth senatorial district are struggling. “The governor (Joe Manchin) has done a good, to fair to poor job of trying to find one solution or set of solutions to serve all the different needs of different parts of the state,” Chafin said. “I haven’t seen a master plan, and that’s what you would like to see.
“We go so far making slow progress and then something like losing commercial air service at the Mercer County Airport comes along like getting hit with a pie in the face,” Chafin said. “As a legislator, I have to ask myself: ‘What can I do for the southern part of the state?’ (Senate President) Earl Ray (Tomlin, D-Logan) and I are doing all we can, but I can’t come down to Mercer County to run an airport. We need local people to step up. We’ll work with them.”
Although he was passed over for key appointments to several important state senate committees after the transfer of power from a decade of Republican control to a 21-19 Democratic Party control, Virginia State Senator Phillip P. Puckett, D-Russell has a close ally in state politics — Gov. Timothy Kaine.
“The governor has a light agenda this year,” Puckett said. “It’s not too controversial. I think the main concern all of us have right now is how do we fix the revenue shortfall,” he said. Kaine has already submitted a budget that includes $325 million in cuts and the use of the state’s rainy day fund to address the $640 million budget deficit. Puckett, now in his 10th session, acknowledged that finding a workable balance between the Republican-controlled House of Delegates and the Democratic majority in the senate may take time.
“There are two pieces of legislation that will be important this year — the mental health issue that I don’t see being too controversial and the governor’s pre-kindergarten program which is already in trouble,” Puckett said.
“As far as the mental health issue is concerned, I think everyone in the General Assembly is concerned about Virginia Tech,” Puckett, himself a Tech graduate, said.
“It’s very early, but it concerns me that I’m already seeing a lot of political positioning on the budget,” Puckett said. “It’s not been so long ago that we couldn’t come to an agreement until we had to stay in session a long time to resolve the budget.”
Still, Puckett said that some outside forces may force an earlier compromise between the house and senate in terms of arriving at compromise. “I think there will be more pressure on the House to make it happen,” Puckett said. “All of those seats will be coming up for election in 2009.”
Puckett said that he hopes the Senate will demonstrate a bipartisan approach to everything. “If it gets to be 21-19 for every vote, it will be a problem, but that may depend on how the leadership works,” he said. “It’s hard to read. I don’t know if anyone can tell how the Democrats will react after 12 years of being in the minority.”
The legislatures of Virginia and West Virginia will both return into session on Wednesday.
– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com
Local News
January 6, 2008
Key issues awaiting lawmakers
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