West Virginia can expect a lawsuit from the Boone County Board of Education. According to Boone County Superintendent of School John Hudson, the board entered into a potential lawsuit in July of this year along with 49 other counties.

The board’s decision was made this past summer, in response to the state legislature indicating that retiree health costs would be a burden for county boards of education.

“We believe it is the state’s responsibility for the funding and recording of that statute,” Hudson says, making reference to Chapter 5, Article 16D of the West Virginia Code.

“This code would include relieving other county boards of education from any obligation to contribute to anything above the annual minimum employer obligation,” he said. “And according to the Dept of Education estimated, Boone County’s estimated liability would be roughly $786,000.”

The overall costs, state-wide, are estimated at $7.8 billion. Gov. Joe Manchin who has reportedly regularly met with a committee of concerned members throughout the state, proposed allowing boards and other government employers to pay just enough of this year's bill to cover current but not future retirees.

However, Manchin’s offer for short-term financial relief was shot down by the legislature.

“What I understand is that the governor proposed to the Senate and the House that the state relieve counties from this cost until a long-term solution could be reached.

The senate blocked that bill; it would be an agenda item in the regular session,” Hudson says.

The school boards are opposing the accounting rule that bills them annually for non-pension retiree costs.

“2009 was the year we had to start reflecting this in our books,” Hudson said. “It all stems from a House Bill passed back in 2004. At that time, the West Virginia Retiree Health Fund was created. It made several requirements for the board. We just do not believe it is the contractual obligation of the county boards to take on this debt; we believe it is the states responsibility,” Hudson says.

Hudson and the other 49 county school boards are not alone in their opinion of financial responsibility.

Senator Ron Stollings commented, “I think these are state employees and the responsibility of the state. I don’t see the county being able to do it. I also don’t see the state being able to do it. It was a promise that was made, but it is a promise that we now realize that can’t be kept,” he said. “Though I don’t serve on the finance committee, I’m sure that is going to be one of the major issues on the upcoming finance committee.”

“This is something we’ve buried our heads in the sand on in the past and it’s something that we’re going to have to step up to the plate and do something about,” the senator said.

“The bottom line is that we’re going to be responsible for paying for something that we did not create. What I understand of it is that we may be owing something that we didn’t create and we could be putting that money to use in our students’ education,” Hudson says.

According to Hudson, the board met yesterday for an informational meeting to share where they were in the process. “Basically, that there was no action taken during the special session of the legislature,” Hudson says.

“The next step would be for all the county boards who have joined in the lawsuit to file a letter of intent to file a lawsuit. Each county would be represented by legal counsel,” he said, stating that the Bowles Rice law firm in Charleston would be representing all counties.