{Charleston, West Virginia}...The 2012 legislative session is underway in Charleston. The 60-day session ends March 10th. During Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s State of the State address Wednesday, Tomblin said he wants lawmakers to speed up the tracking of pain pill prescriptions while creating a state drug testing program for all coal mines and all enrollees in taxpayer-supported workforce training programs. Tomblin also called for a wide-ranging mine safety law which includes protecting whistleblowers, guarding against explosive rock dust and improving the monitoring of methane gas. Proposals also include a year-long study of the safety training received by miners, supervisors and inspectors. Tomblin's proposed budget does not include pay increases for teachers beyond the automatic raises tied to years of service. The state recently began a pilot project to experiment with teacher evaluations. Tomblin asked lawmakers to make that pilot program part of state law. New budget proposals would allow hiring two more mining inspectors and building a prison camp for low-risk offenders. Additional funding for Medicaid and for behavioral health reflect the bulk of the increases in the spending plan. Tomblin proposes spending nearly $4.5 billion from general tax and lottery revenues. Public education would consume nearly half that. Health-related programs account for another fifth. Higher education and public safety would each get roughly 10 percent. he proposal would increase such spending by $125 million or 3 percent over the current budget. Other proposals Governor Tomblin offered the Legislature say West Virginia would slash property taxes in exchange for a new “cracker” plant and reserve funds to improve roads, schools and high-speed Internet access. Tomblin urged lawmakers to help the state compete with neighboring Marcellus producers Ohio and Pennsylvania for the 12,000 manufacturing jobs estimated to accompany such a petrochemical processing plant.
