To All
State Employees:
The
Compensation Package that I have put forth will move the state significantly
forward with hope for more in the years to come.
Dale Lee and
David Haney at the WVEA, Christine Campbell and Bob Brown from the AFT and Joe
White, from the School Service Personnel, and myself worked diligently to pull
off an incredible package for the state workers of West Virginia. This happened
as a result of many of the things I heard from the people that came out to the
Town Hall meetings on Monday.
But most
of all a little boy that had a lot of wisdom, named Gideon. Gideon reinforced a
philosophy of treating education as an investment and as an economic driver. This
is the way we ought to look at education. I’ve said this many, many times that
we all need to look at education this way.
Input has
also been provided from many good legislators. Our Legislature has worked very
hard as well to help us achieve goodness for education and all of our state
workers. Again, it was my promise to the union representatives that in the
years to come we will continue to revisit pay raises.
I have
issued an Executive Order today creating a special Task Force, that will
include Educators and nothing but West Virginians. That Task Force is being
formed right now and will be appointed by the end of the week to address and
explore all avenues that will lead to a permanent fix for PEIA. It is important
that everyone understand that identifying all of the issues in our healthcare
program and finding a solution takes time. A cure won’t come in 30 minutes, but
I can promise you this Task Force will begin its work immediately.
While I
have placed a moratorium on PEIA for 16 months, finding a solution to this problem needs to be
accomplished in a much, much shorter period of time.
There are
several possibilities that will be looked at for the revenue we need to solve
the PEIA issues once and for all. The possibilities of additional severance
taxes on oil and gas, gaming revenue from sports betting, tax dollars being
generated from our roads projects, continuing growth in our economy and the
possibility of putting the insurance out for competitive bids are just a few;
everything is going to be looked at.
I’ve
believed from day one that education should be our centerpiece, and I continue to
follow that same philosophy today.
Jim
Justice
Governor
of West Virginia
View the Original Letter Here
View the Executive Order Here