Commuter trains, elections, Marcellus shale, OPEB and road funds to be addressed
February 1, 2011 - By John McVey, Journal staff writer
MARTINSBURG - The West Virginia Senate's 2011 legislative session has settled into a routine after a couple of weeks of upset over that chamber's leadership, state Sen. Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, said in a recent telephone interview.
"It's calmed down and it's getting productive," he said. "Committees are operating smoothly and we're moving bills."
Snyder was named chair of the Senate Government Organization Committee when committee assignments were shuffled after state Sen. Jeffrey V. Kessler, D-Marshall, secured enough votes to change the Senate's rules creating the position of acting Senate president and to have himself elected to that post.
Kessler lobbied hard for the new position when Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, became acting governor after former Gov. Joe Manchin was elected to fill the unexpired term of the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd.
Kessler named new committee chairs and put new people in leadership positions, including state Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, who was named majority leader, the No. 2 spot in the state Senate.
Snyder-sponsored bills
So far this session, the most important piece of legislation introduced by Snyder is Senate Bill 245, the Chesapeake Bay Restoration funding bill.
"It's absolutely critical for the Eastern Panhandle and it's more important to Berkeley County (than the other counties)," he said.
The bill, which Snyder authored and shepherded through an Interim Judiciary Subcommittee, would dedicate $6 million of the state's excess lottery fund for the next 20 to 30 years - raising about $132 million - to finance bonds that would help pay for improvements and upgrades to large wastewater treatment plants in the greater, eight-county Eastern Panhandle.
The upgrades and improvements to about 10 sewer plants in the Panhandle are needed because of new, very stringent pollution-control mandates ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of its Chesapeake Bay Restoration program.
The EPA has ordered states to dramatically reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution getting into the tributaries of the bay. The Potomac River is one of the major tributaries of the bay and West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle is in the Potomac watershed.
The upgrades and improvements would cost an estimated $180 million to $240 million. The estimated cost to making improvements to the Martinsburg sewer treatment plant is $45 million and the Berkeley County treatment facility improvements would be about $40 million.
"We cannot put that cost on the backs of ratepayers alone," Snyder said.
Another bill Snyder has introduced is Senate Bill 58, the Commuter Rail Access Act.
It would set aside about $500,000 to subsidize the MARC commuter trains that serve Jefferson and Berkeley counties.
"We are very vulnerable to those trains being cut," Snyder explained. "Maryland is still in a budget crunch, and what happens in Maryland could have a direct effect on West Virginia commuters."
Maryland threatened in 2008 to cut MARC commuter trains running between Martinsburg and Washington's Union Station, with stops in Duffields and Harpers Ferry, because of budget cuts to MARC.
CSX owns the rail lines that MARC uses for its commuter service. MARC must pay CSX almost $500,000 annually to run commuter trains on the CSX lines in West Virginia. West Virginia has never contributed to those costs.
A compromise was reached between MARC officials and West Virginia's local and state leaders to preserve commuter train service to Berkeley and Jefferson counties. One regularly scheduled train was cut and West Virginia passengers began paying $2 extra for a one-way ticket in February 2009.
Snyder believes SB58 has a good chance of at least getting out of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
"It would let Maryland know that West Virginia wants to be part of (the MARC commuter rail service)," he said.
Other important legislation
Two bills of great importance to state residents introduced by other members of the Legislature are the elections bill and the Marcellus shale bill.
Describing it as "huge," Snyder said the elections bill would set June 20 for a special primary election to pick nominees to run for governor during a special election on Oct. 4.
"Otherwise we would have a nominating convention and I and most legislators are vehemently opposed to a convention," he said. "One-third of the voters in the 16th (Senate) district are independent and would not have a chance to vote in a convention. It's a plain bad idea."
The 16th Senate district, which Snyder represents, includes all of Jefferson County and about three-quarters of Berkeley County.
The West Virginia Supreme Court ordered Tomblin, in his capacity as acting governor, to proclaim and set a date for a special election to fill Manchin's unexpired term in office. The high court's justices said the new governor has to take office by Nov. 15, the one anniversary of Manchin vacating the post.
In their decision, the justices pointed out that under current state code, political party nominating conventions are mandated to select candidates for the special election. The justices also pointed out that state lawmakers could change that part of the code legislatively to hold a primary rather than conventions.
Senate Bill 258, the so-called Marcellus shale drilling bill, would set rules and regulations for the burgeoning industry, which applies new technology to the extraction of natural gas from a mile-deep layer of shale that runs throughout the Appalachian Mountains.
The Marcellus shale gas drilling business is expected to produce several billions of dollars of revenue for West Virginia and its residents.
"We have an opportunity to do this right and not make the same mistakes we made with coal," Snyder said. "There are potential environmental concerns, so it must be done properly. We must protect our water and roads."
He added that a companion bill to the Marcellus shale drilling bill should be introduced that would offer incentives to companies to build natural gas refineries in West Virginia.
"We have to latch onto that and capture one or two (refineries) or they'll be in Pennsylvania," Snyder said.
In addition to the natural gas, Marcellus gas can be refined to produce chemicals that are used in the manufacture of plastics, which could reinvigorate the plastics industry in the Kanawha Valley, he explained.
"The benefits are enormous," Snyder said.
Unaddressed issues
Unfortunately, there are a couple important issues that Snyder does not think will be addressed during the current legislative session, which he finds "disheartening and disappointing."
No proposal has been submitted to address the $8 billion OPEB unfunded liability, he said.
Mainly health care costs, other post-employment benefits - other than pensions - were promised to public employees in lieu of high salaries and pay raises by legislators going back several decades.
However, funding for these benefits was not set aside in adequate amounts or not all. Now, with the boomer generation reaching retirement age, the tab is coming due. Some analysts have said West Virginia's unfunded OPEB liability could jeopardize the state's solvency and severely hurt the state's credit rating.
"It's disheartening," Snyder said. "One more year, we're going to kick the can down the road."
He is even more disappointed, though, that no one is addressing the funding shortfall for road construction, maintenance and repair, which state transportation officials have said is minimally about $800 million a year.
"Nothing is going to be introduced because it's an election year," Snyder said. "This one of the top two items we have to deal with this year and it's our responsibility to make the tough decisions."
He suggests that slight increases to certain fees associated with car registration and licenses dedicated exclusively to roads could raise about $70 million this year, which would help, but obviously would not solve the problem.
"I might introduce something myself," Snyder said. "We've go to get serious about roads. Good roads are in every citizens' common interest."
Snyder can be reached at 304-357-7957 orherb.snyder@wvsenate.gov.
- Staff writer John McVey can be reached at 304-263-3381, ext. 128, or jmcvey@journal-news.net
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