CALHOUN JOINS WV SCHOOL BOARDS IN LAWSUIT

(02/23/2010)

Calhoun is one of fifty of the fifty-five county boards of education in West Virginia that has filed a lawsuit against the Public Employees Insurance Agency, the Public Employees Insurance Agency Finance Board, and the West Virginia State Auditor. West Virginia is facing $7.8 billion in unfunded liability in its other post-employment benefits, or OPEB, programs for state government retirees. The suit has been filed in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County. Much of the liability is being passed to county systems. School systems say they cannot see how they can finance such a shortfall. "We need to get a jump on it and on it now, before the liability becomes so large that it literally consumes all our future economic growth," said Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin. The law firm Bowles Rice McDavid Graff and Love LLP filed the suit on behalf of the county boards of education. The suit is seeking to relieve county boards of education from statutory requirements with respect to reporting and funding of (OPED) Other Post Employment Benefits. The suit insists on relieving county boards of education from any obligation to contribute to the West Virginia Retiree Health Benefit Trust Fund in any amount that exceeds the state funding currently provided to the county boards of education for their employees.

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