WV Economic Woes

by: Clem Guttata

Sun Feb 13, 2011 at 12:15:09 PM EST

First, on the unemployment front:

The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent in December. That was the worst monthly rate of 2010.

It's also the first time that West Virginia's rate was higher than the national rate since the Great Recession began.

West Virginia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed three-tenths of a percentage point to 9.6 percent, while the national rate declined four-tenths of a percentage point to 9.4 percent, a report from Workforce West Virginia reported. The number of unemployed state residents rose 5,900 to 73,500. Total unemployment was up 6,400 over the year.

Nearly all counties recorded rising unemployment rates as well, the Workforce report said.

Second, the long-term financial picture for the state has some concerns, too.

A Wall Street bond rating agency, meanwhile, identified West Virginia as having one of the highest debt loads among states. Moody's Investor Service last week began ranking states for both their taxpayer supported debt and pension funding shortfalls.

West Virginia has been continually dealing with unfunded liabilities on the local and state levels. The State legislature has been trying to address other post-employment benefits (OPEB). Retired public employees, primarily educators, had been promised about $8 billion worth of benefits, such as health insurance, without a revenue stream to cover the cost.

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Delegate Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, said unfunded liabilities is one of the most significant issues facing the Legislature at this time. Carmichael serves on the House of Delegate's Finance Committee as the Minority Vice Chairman.

''It is the big white elephant in the room that no one is talking about,'' he said. ''The previous administration did nothing on this.''

A working group has been put together to come up with proposals to address the issue. A bill was expected to be submitted to the House this past week or could be introduced early this coming week based on what the group was able to work out.

''With $8 billion in debts, the state really has no surplus,'' Carmichael said.