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WORKERS COMP MESS WILL NOT BE FIXED THIS YEAR - Despite compromise the House and Senate reach on
workers' compensation, the Legislature will have work on issue next year, said House Speaker Bob Kiss.
After a month of proposals to increase taxes, raise premiums, close colleges, use tobacco settlement money and a variety of
other ideas, the House and Senate appears to be too far apart on the issue to reach a solution.
Kiss says he would like to see some basic reforms passed so the system won't g bankrupt under a $2.5 billion debt.
ENVIRONMENT DAY AT LEGISLATURE -Frank Young of the Coalition for Responsible Logging said it's easy to count
the number of legislators who've viewed the exhibit. "They haven't yet," he said.
Mingo County residents Patsy Carter and Judy Maynard were showing a video of coal trucks driving on two-lane highways.
The two women followed coal trucks for several days in March and April to show how the overloaded trucks swerve into
the left-hand lanes on curves, run through stop lights, speed through school zones and dump parts of the loads onto the
highway. Carter's 21-year-old daughter was killed in a head-on collision with a coal truck on May 2, 2000.
A group of coalfield residents urging legislators not to raise the legal weight limit for coal trucks from its current maximum of
80,000 pounds to the 120,000 pounds. The bill is moving ahead for a vote.
PENSION DEBTS ?- A divided Senate approved a plan to sell $3.9 billion in bonds to help pay off the state's pension
debt.
On a voice vote, the Senate on Tuesday passed to the House a resolution that would empower Gov. Bob Wise to sell bonds
and use the proceeds to restructure almost 80 percent of the state's $5 billion debt in teacher, trooper and judge retirement
plans.
Backed by the state's general budget, the bonds would qualify for interest rates at 40-year lows. Proceeds would then be
invested in stock and bond markets by the Investment Management Board.
Some senators continue to object to the plan, saying it is too risky. The House passed a similar bill last year to see it die in
the Senate.
Treasurer John Perdue and Auditor Glen Gainer are prepared to sue to stop the bond sale, saying that doing so without a
popular vote would violate West Virginia's Constitution.
COAL TRUCK BILL MOVING ON UP - The Senate Finance Committee approved a bill that would permit coal trucks
weighing up to 126,000 pounds to travel on designated roadways in several southern West Virginia counties.
The approval came after the committee added several amendments to the bill and despite the comments of two women who
spoke out against it.
Sen. Shirley Love, D-Fayette added an amendment to expand the system of "coal resource transportation roads" to certain
routes in Greenbrier, Clay, Nicholas and Webster counties. They are in addition to the 12 counties, including part of
Kanawha County, that were already included in the bill.
An amendment submitted by Sen. Bill Sharpe, D-Lewis, would charge the coal trucks a penny a ton for using the coal haul
roads with the revenue going into a special fund for maintaining those roads.
Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, said there would be no way to determine that until the system is put
into operation.
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