WORKMAN'S COMP FUND PLUNGES INTO DEBT - Could Face Bankruptcy

(11/19/2002)

West Virginia's Worker's Compensation Fund is falling deeper and deeper in debt. Bureau of Employment Programs Director Robert Smith said the plunge is the worst in several years, about $2.6 billion. The State, now propped up by gambling money, faces a loss in gambling revenue with at least two adjacent states likely to get into the gambling machine business. Smith told lawmakers if changes are not made soon, the fund would go bankrupt. Former Underwood administrator William Viewing excused millions of dollars owed by several coal companies, after they claimed they used contract workers. The Wise administration has now collected some of that money.

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