This is the eighth preview of the House District 51 race, which includes 12 candidates.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Fixing PEIA is one of the top priorities for a veteran legislator seeking her tenth term to Charleston.
“State employees were promised health care in exchange for not getting a raise (in years past),” Democrat Barbara Evans Fleischauer said this week on WAJR’s Morgantown AM. “So, I think that’s really important — to stabilize the health care. That would take a blend of different sources.”
Fleischauer is concerned that the state doesn’t have the adequate funding to solve PEIA now.
“We’re going to have to have some additional revenue to stabilize PEIA,” she said. “It sounds like the surplus is kind of gradually being eliminated, but it will take a hard look. But that’s where I think our priorities should be — fixing PEIA.”
A winner of nine of the ten elections she’s participated in, Fleischauer said her experience has become a real bonus for her constituents.
“I’m minority chair of the judiciary committee, so we’ve had a whole lot of action this summer,” she said. “And I’m a long-time member of the health committee. So those are two areas that I’ve concentrated on a whole lot.”
She continued: “A bill to pass has to really almost be introduced on the first day, and it has to be assigned to committees sometimes too. The Chair has to put it on the agenda of each committee. So it is helpful to know the chair.”
Fleischauer, notably, has been critical of some of the impeachment efforts in Charleston, suggesting the current efforts are overreaching. Still, she is a supporter of Amendment No. 2, which would transfer control of the State Supreme Court’s budget to the Legislature following more than a year’s worth of spending scandals involving the state’s highest court.
“I think the Amendment No. 2 is a proper balance, but I think it is pretty hard to say they violated something about spending when they had total control over their own spending,” she said. “When and if Amendment No. 2 passes, there will be checks and balances.”
Check out the full interview at the main page of WAJR.com. You can also read additional previews from other candidates who have been interviewed on Morgantown AM, including incumbents John Williams (D), Rodney Pyles (D), Joe Statler (R) and Cindy Frich (R), plus challengers Evan Hansen, Danielle Walker (D) and Roger Shuttlesworth (R).