OAK HILL, W.Va. — Senator Jeff Kessler (D – Marshall, 02) will meet with Fayette County residents on Wednesday in Oak Hill, and he expects education to be the number one topic of discussion.
The candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for Governor toured schools in Fayette County in October–the same day that Fayette County filed a lawsuit against the School Building Authority for rejecting a consent item amendment on the CEFP (Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan),
“You don’t stir the hornets nest and then not look for a solution, and that’s what I intend to do,” he said on Tuesday’s edition of the MetroNews affiliated “The Mike Queen Show” on the AJR News Network. “[I’ll] go over and meet with those folks, continue to monitor it. I’m glad the SBA decided to reconsider their decision, and they’re going to listen to the amendment.”
The School Building Authority added the amendment back to their agenda, permitting Fayette County to try and find matching funding for their consolidation and renovation proposal.
Kessler expects people in attendance to bring other education issues to the table–namely the Public Employee’s Insurance Agency upcoming vote on increasing health care costs to cover a $120 million hole.
“We’ve got an awful lot of state retirees that are taking a pay cut this session because we’ve got to come up with 40 million dollars we underfunded for their PEIA insurance,” he said.
The PEIA Finance Board had planned to vote last Thursday, but postponed the meeting to Thursday, December 10.
If they approve the increase in costs, public employees would see a $500 increase for individual plans and $1,000 increase for family plans.
Out-of-pocket maximums would jump $1,500 for one person and $3,000 for a family.
“These retirees that dedicated a lifetime to the service of the state of West Virginia and our school system, dependent on their retirement check, are going to take an eight to ten percent pay cut because their premiums are going up,” Kessler said
Kessler repeated one of his favorite lines during the interview on “The Mike Queen Show,” saying that we can’t “cut our way to prosperity.”
“We’re cutting funding particularly to the systems that we absolutely are going to depend on to pull us out of our doldrums and that’s education,” Kessler said. “I know for the first time in my lifetime we are cutting money to not only higher education but to public education.”
The community forum will begin at 6 p.m. at SALS Historic Oak Hill School.