Fighting fire with . . . education
Released May 2004

        As anyone who has ever taken the time to read any of my opinion pieces knows, I keep my soapbox as the ready lest the subject turn to education.
      This office’s programs include financial education for children and adults. The latter category takes in our popular “Women & Money” series, which is spread over five dates and state cities this year.
      On a broader scale, state government will never right its fiscal ship until we make real change in our education system. It won’t attract significant private employment until we can point to a greater number of college-educated residents. We will never change the undesirable image others have of us until something substantial happens in that area.
      That’s why I was disappointed at the failure of H.B. 4431 this past legislative session. The bill would have created a West Virginia Lottery scratch-off game to pay for a portion of volunteer firefighters’ higher education.
      This is in no way an endorsement of gambling, but you know as well as I that the West Virginia Lottery is here to stay. Too many state programs depend upon it.
      As your state treasurer, I am responsible for disbursing revenue created by sale of the new game tickets. One-half would have gone to recruitment, retention and education of volunteer firefighters, the other half to the municipal firefighter pension and relief funds.
     My office has long been in charge of dispensing one percent of state residents’ fire and casualty insurance premiums for use by both volunteer fire departments and the aforementioned police and fire pension funds.
     In fiscal 2003, we distributed $12.8 million to the pension funds and $4.9 million to volunteer fire departments. The insurance tax generated $19.7 million total. A little more than $1 million of that total went to the state teachers’ retirement fund.
      Most know that the typical pension fund in a state city is woefully under funded. Some have no assets. Not a pretty picture.
      And volunteer fire departments too are still hurting for more operating revenue. As a native of a rural West Virginia community, I know how hard it is to find dedicated men and women willing to put their lives on the line, in certain circumstances, for nothing.
      H.B. 4431 would have provided one semester of tuition for each two years of a firefighters’ service, provided that the bill is not greater than $2,500. No one could have received more than three years of paid tuition.
     Now, obviously, this doesn’t guarantee a four-year degree but it’s smart to start this program conservatively. Neither lottery officials nor the Legislature has any idea how much money the new game would have generated.
     There is no need, after all, for the state to make promises it can’t keep. We have done plenty of that in the past. An easy example to cite is the gaping hole in the public employees’ retirement fund.
     But, as I said, I applaud any initiative that attempts to improve our state’s educational climate. And no one deserves the assistance more than volunteer firefighters, who perform the most basic and vital of services for free.
     It’s time they were paid something.