MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Around 40 people were on hand Monday night as the PEIA Finance Board brought its public hearing to Martinsburg.
A show of hands revealed a handful of state workers, one local government official and three retirees.
Jacqueline Sanchez
The rest were made up of mostly public schools employees. Among those speaking. Jacqueline Sanchez, who said one employee shared that she and her husband have about $250 left after paying their necessary bills and PEIA premiums, not enough to pay the approximately $900 a month she said they would need to pay for her husband’s diabetes medicine. He’s gone into ketoacidosis twice, and as of Monday night, was in the ICU.
Sanchez said the employee who wrote the letter talked about choices she’s had to make. “’We are getting hit with spousal surcharge. We have Plan B because Plan A was too expensive, but Plan B is proving to be just as much. Because of this, we are having to choose between which bills we aren’t paying, not eating, not getting our medical attention. I have chosen not eating, eating only once a day when I get home, which has led to irritability and health issues.,’” Sanchez said of the letter writer.
Jana Woofter
Jana Woofter is a chemistry teacher at Spring Mills High School. The 12 year teaching veteran spoke to elected officials in saying it seems every year teachers take one step forward and two back in terms of pay and benefits. “We’re already seeing the consequences across the state. Vacancies that go unfilled, classrooms covered by substitutes, and experienced teachers leaving the state for states like Maryland (and) Virginia, not because they want to, but because they simply cannot afford to stay,” Woofter said, of “teachers, bus drivers, service personnel, law enforcement and countless other public employees.”
“Legislators, please remember this is not just insurance. Behind every line in this financial report, there are people, families who serve this state with everything they have. We ask you to consider the real human cost of these increases and work with our PEIA Financial board to find a lasting solution that doesn’t push more West Virginians out of public service.”
Heather Smith
Teacher Heather Smith leveled criticism at lawmakers as well as two sitting members of the Berkeley County Board of Education who were in attendance.
“Locality pay. How long have we been asking for help up in here? ‘Oh, yeah, we’re going to do locality pay,” she said.
“Yeah, I don’t see it coming because I’ll tell you what, (Berkeley County School Board member) Pat Murphy, who was a delegate, went down to Charleston. And y’all wouldn’t even meet with him for locality pay. So don’t be all like talking up in here like you’re gonna actually do something.”
Amber Stokes compared the cost of living in Martinsburg to other areas in the state.
Amber Stokes
“I’ve been an employee for 28 years. I’ve always worked two jobs. This year I’m working three jobs. My home is worth about $330,000. I have an acre of land. My husband and I worked very hard for that,” Stokes said. “I can go to other parts of the state and other counties and buy the same home with five to ten acres for roughly $200,000. That’s the difference between the Eastern Panhandle and the rest of the state,” with maybe the exception of Morgantown according to Stokes.
Some who spoke, including a retiree, pointed out that their benefits in retirement do not increase even if premiums do. Service employee Christy Skidmore asked the PEIA board to look into tiering the cost of the spousal surcharge so that service employees like herself would not pay the same surcharge as someone with higher pay, like a superintendent in the school system.
Delegate Wayne Clark
Many of the legislative delegation echoed 99th District Delegate Wayne Clark’s public remarks that the delegation Is only 13 of 134 in both the state house and senate, and when they try to get locality passed each year, the rest of the state’s lawmakers don’t have an appetite for it.
“My wife is a teacher,” the Jefferson County lawmaker said. “We pay this spousal surcharge, too.”
“We continue to introduce plans. We continue to get the fights from other parts of the state. I can assure you that we are going to do everything we can. We’re going to try as hard as we can to make this a better place to live.”
“We understand that folks can easily get across the border in one or two miles and make a better living for themselves. We want our teachers to stay here.”
At the end of the day, he says the 13 member Eastern Panhandle delegation is ‘ outnumbered.’
95th Delegate Chuck Horst says locality pay is a tough sell in other counties.
“When I first ran for office, I thought it was something that we would get done within a couple of years. That hasn’t panned out.”
“Every legislator here in the Eastern Panhandle supports and fights for locality pay. My take or my suspicion is many of these delegates, senators from rural areas of the state, they look at Eastern Panhandle as having everything, and I get a sense that they feel like we shouldn’t have to give them this extra (cost of living increase).”
15th District Senator Darren Thorne said lawmakers from other counties want teachers to be paid the same. “It’s not that they won’t do locality pay,” he said. “It’s that they want the same pay. So it’s not necessarily a locality pay at that point, right?”
“Then we have to do it across the whole state. They see that if we give a $20,000 raise to Berkeley County that they’re going to want that same, you know, in Mingo County.”
Berkeley County Board of Education President Jackee Long and members Patrick Murphy and Damon Wright were in attendance at the hearing.
Berkeley County BOE President Jackee Long
President Long laid out the challenges for teachers and service personnel in a high cost of living area. “The lowest price of a home in Berkeley County ranges from $260,000 to $275,000,” Long said. “A median priced home in Berkeley County ranges around $300,000 to$ 330,000.”
“Needless to say, our education employees are not fortunate enough to be able to purchase those homes because average Berkeley County teacher salary is $50,495. The average Berkeley County service personnel salary is $28,894.”
Damon Wright spoke to the board and questioned whether changing the funding formula for the Hope Scholarship might be a way to offset costs for the PEIA program.
“Would there be any consideration for a limit on how much that’s going to be increasing and use that money to shore up not just public education, but our state workers?” Wright asked.
“None of us on the board are against school choice, and most people around the state are not against school choice at all. That’s perfectly fine that parents want to make different decisions rather than the public school system,” Wright said.
“I don’t want to call it a scholarship program,” Wright said. “I was on scholarship through school for my my grades. The Hope scholarship program is just you just have to be here in West Virginia and you get it. It’s not really anything you have to do to get it. So it’s a voucher program.”
More than one of the speakers pointed out to the PEIA Finance board in attendance that the board was “playing the hand” dealt by lawmakers.
Among the local lawmakers in attendance were 15th District Senator Darren Thorne and Delegates Larry Kump (District 94), Lisa White (District 96), Chuck Horst (District 95), Mike Hite (District 92), and Wayne Clark (District 99) For their part, many of the Eastern Panhandle delegation said one way to offset costs in an area with a high cost of living is locality pay, which has been hard to get off the ground.
Members of the PEIA Finance Board along with PEIA advocates and Secretary of Administration Eric Householder
Public hearings have been scheduled around the state and virtually.
The next two meetings are in Charleston and Morgantown.
The virtual town hall is set for November 20th.
The fiscal year 2027 budget is being developed. As of September 2025, West Virginia revenue officials had already begun drafting the general revenue budget for fiscal year 2027, which begins July 1st of next year.
Costs are expected to increase, and state revenue officials project the state’s portion of PEIA premiums will increase by $49 million in fiscal year 2027, which is likely to result in higher premium costs for public employees.
Note: this article has been edited to clarify criticisms of one speaker toward lawmakers not the local school board.
