(WVEA) The PEIA Task Force subcommittees have worked throughout the summer. The Outreach subcommittee has completed its work and their report has been accepted by the full PEIA Task Force. You can view the report on the WVEA website, www.wvea.org.

The next steps are for the other subcommittees to take those findings and incorporate it into their work as they develop the plan and the funding changes. The Cost and Revenue subcommittee will meet on Thursday, August 23 and the Coverage and Plan subcommittee meets on Friday, August 24. WVEA will monitor the work of those committees and report on any significant actions.

The PEIA Task Force work continues and they will have their work completed later in the fall. Remember that ultimately the funding component will take legislative approval through increased revenue and budget approval.

One very large piece to fixing PEIA is to elect people to the Legislature who are supportive of public employees and working West Virginians.

Since everyone is focused on getting back to school, getting settled in and getting to know your students; we will kick off our fall election campaigns on Sunday, September 16th. That’s the start of the Legislature’s September interims in Charleston.

There will be a rally at the Capitol on Sunday, September 16th at 2:00 pm. The focus of the rally will be fixing PEIA and electing pro-employee candidates. We know everyone can’t make it to Charleston, so our locals will also hold rallies back home focusing on the same issues.

Our fall activities are just as important (and maybe more so) as our actions in the spring. We must continue our united efforts and each of us must focus on legislative elections.

It takes all of us working as a team and doing our part to win in November!