Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) remains an $8 billion problem for West Virginia. Other states are also dealing with the growing costs of retirement health care benefits for public employees, but our current system is one of the most costly on a per capita basis.
The Legislature’s Joint Finance Subcommittee C has been exploring solutions to the OPEB challenge, and the subcommittee needs public feedback regarding this “Working List of Possible OPEB Actions” (PDF), so feel free to provide such via blog comment.
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To help deal with the growing costs of OPEB, my suggestions would be to: 1) set minimum retirement age to correspond with Medicare eligiblity; 2) offer premium subsidies based on length of service; and 3) increase tabacco, liquor (and fast food!) taxes and dedicate the additional amounts to the OPEB Trust.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on this important issue.