CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State law in West Virginia is held together with any number of legal fictions.

Under West Virginia law, beer is nonintoxicating, all bars and restaurants serving liquor by the drink are private clubs, and state voters authorized casino gambling when they approved a state lottery in 1986.

One of the biggest legal fictions is that teachers and public school personnel are county employees -- even though more than 90 percent of their salaries and benefits are paid with state dollars through the School Aid Formula.

Which is why legislators and Public Employee Insurance Agency officials are having to tread lightly in drafting legislation to declare that the massive unfunded liability for future health-care costs for retired teachers and school personnel -- currently estimated at more than $3 billion -- is the obligation of the state, not the county boards of education.

They have to craft the law carefully to avoid shattering the illusion that teachers and service personnel are county employees who just happen to be paid by the state.

The ramifications of admitting that public school employees are employees of the state would be widespread, not the least of which being that there are about 17 legislators who would have to either quit their day jobs, or be ineligible to serve in the Legislature as state employees.

Another issue would be whether there would be any need for having 55 employee-less county boards of education.

Education seminars

Speaking of education, I finally got an answer of sorts from Department of Education spokeswoman Liza Cordeiro on how much the department spends each year to host professional development seminars at ritzy hotels, resorts and conference centers around the state.

She forwarded the following: "In order to fulfill your request, the number below includes state monies spent on major professional development from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009. The amount includes off-campus costs (hospitality, rentals, food, lodging) for professional development for educators in the public school system. This number does not include one-day informational meetings.

"Total amount: $2,146,920."

While $2.14 million is a drop in the bucket for a department with a $1.9 billion operating budget, couldn't that money be better spent in the classroom?

Meanwhile, I talked to Logan County school board member Moss Burgess, who concurs that the department is wasting money sending teachers and administrators to hotels for professional training.

He said he was at the Charleston Marriott last month attending one of the department's in-service sessions, when it occurred to him that every meeting he attended could have just as easily been streamed on the Internet.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State law in West Virginia is held together with any number of legal fictions.

Under West Virginia law, beer is nonintoxicating, all bars and restaurants serving liquor by the drink are private clubs, and state voters authorized casino gambling when they approved a state lottery in 1986.

One of the biggest legal fictions is that teachers and public school personnel are county employees -- even though more than 90 percent of their salaries and benefits are paid with state dollars through the School Aid Formula.

Which is why legislators and Public Employee Insurance Agency officials are having to tread lightly in drafting legislation to declare that the massive unfunded liability for future health-care costs for retired teachers and school personnel -- currently estimated at more than $3 billion -- is the obligation of the state, not the county boards of education.

They have to craft the law carefully to avoid shattering the illusion that teachers and service personnel are county employees who just happen to be paid by the state.

The ramifications of admitting that public school employees are employees of the state would be widespread, not the least of which being that there are about 17 legislators who would have to either quit their day jobs, or be ineligible to serve in the Legislature as state employees.

Another issue would be whether there would be any need for having 55 employee-less county boards of education.

Education seminars

Speaking of education, I finally got an answer of sorts from Department of Education spokeswoman Liza Cordeiro on how much the department spends each year to host professional development seminars at ritzy hotels, resorts and conference centers around the state.

She forwarded the following: "In order to fulfill your request, the number below includes state monies spent on major professional development from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009. The amount includes off-campus costs (hospitality, rentals, food, lodging) for professional development for educators in the public school system. This number does not include one-day informational meetings.

"Total amount: $2,146,920."

While $2.14 million is a drop in the bucket for a department with a $1.9 billion operating budget, couldn't that money be better spent in the classroom?

Meanwhile, I talked to Logan County school board member Moss Burgess, who concurs that the department is wasting money sending teachers and administrators to hotels for professional training.

He said he was at the Charleston Marriott last month attending one of the department's in-service sessions, when it occurred to him that every meeting he attended could have just as easily been streamed on the Internet.

"The state superintendent and the local superintendent are always talking about incorporating computer technology," Burgess noted. "Why don't we do in-services over the Internet?"

Limited video lottery

With little fanfare, the Select Panel on Limited Video Lottery closed out its public comment period on the 2011 rebidding of all LVL licenses, with nary a single comment, written or spoken, calling for elimination of the gambling devices in bars and clubs around the state.

Two themes emerged from the comments:

1. Bar owners resent the competition for LVL dollars that emerged with the proliferation of "corner casinos" that do not serve alcohol.

2. Many favor having the Lottery function as distributors of the machines (as is the case in Oregon) rather than to license LVL operators, such as Joe C. Ferrell's Southern Amusement, currently facing federal racketeering and bribery charges.

Re-election fundraiser

Sen. Mike Green, D-Raleigh, held a re-election fundraiser Wednesday at The Equities House downtown.

Hosts included Gov. Joe Manchin, Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, state Democratic Party Chairman Nick Casey, Triana Energy Holdings CEO Henry Harmon, state Oil and Natural Gas Association Executive Director Corky DeMarco, Oil and Natural Gas Association President Dave Spigelmyer, Dominion Resources lobbyist Bob Orndorff, and West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney.

Office space

Finally, during her meeting with Helen Holt, the state's first female secretary of state, current Secretary of State Natalie Tennant confirmed that what is now claimed as the governor's conference room was for years part of the secretary of state's suite of offices in the Capitol.

She said Arch A. Moore Jr. commandeered the room during his first term as governor to use for news conferences. (He installed studio lights in the ceiling of the room to accommodate the comparatively primitive television cameras of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The lights were still in place well into the 1990s, long after they were no longer necessary.)

From the way Tennant was talking, it sounds like she's moving toward reclaiming the space -- which Manchin spent nearly $70,000 to renovate last year, installing carpet from Belgium, custom-made leather chairs, and a media center with flat-screen TV.

Tennant said the governor's office recently installed pictures in the room, and said she called Manchin to thank him for the nice gift for "her" offices.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.