CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A proposed "fat tax" on overweight public employees is off the table, Gov. Joe Manchin told representatives of public school employee groups Monday.

"He advised us they are going to back away from that," said Bob Brown, executive director of the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association.

Manchin made the comments Monday during a meeting of the work group that has been looking at ways to reduce the state's massive unfunded liability for future health-care costs for retired public school and state employees.

The work group is made up primarily of representatives of teachers' unions, along with school board members.

Manchin angered public employees Thursday, when he asked the Public Employees Insurance Agency Finance Board to consider following North Carolina's lead, to impose higher health insurance premiums on overweight employees.

North Carolina's public employee insurance commission recently approved a plan to charge overweight employees higher health insurance premiums, beginning in July 2011.

On Monday, Manchin stressed that he wants to encourage public school and state employees to pursue healthier lifestyles, spokesman Matt Turner said.

"This is not about taxing people who are overweight," Turner said. "What we want is ways to incentivize people, to reward them for healthy lifestyles."

Brown said he believes Manchin underestimated the outcry over his proposal.

"He advised us they are going to back away from that," said Bob Brown, executive director of the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association.

Manchin made the comments Monday during a meeting of the work group that has been looking at ways to reduce the state's massive unfunded liability for future health-care costs for retired public school and state employees.

The work group is made up primarily of representatives of teachers' unions, along with school board members.

Manchin angered public employees Thursday, when he asked the Public Employees Insurance Agency Finance Board to consider following North Carolina's lead, to impose higher health insurance premiums on overweight employees.

North Carolina's public employee insurance commission recently approved a plan to charge overweight employees higher health insurance premiums, beginning in July 2011.

On Monday, Manchin stressed that he wants to encourage public school and state employees to pursue healthier lifestyles, spokesman Matt Turner said.

"This is not about taxing people who are overweight," Turner said. "What we want is ways to incentivize people, to reward them for healthy lifestyles."

Brown said he believes Manchin underestimated the outcry over his proposal.

"I don't think he understood how emotional an issue this is for people struggling with weight problems," Brown said.

"Coming on the heels of some fairly substantial [PEIA] premium increases and increased co-pays last year, it's like pouring salt in a wound that's already open," he said.

West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee objected to the proposal during Thursday's PEIA meeting, suggesting that PEIA would be better served to put greater emphasis on wellness programs.

"To simply have a program that increases premiums on obese people is very discriminatory and very wrong," Lee said Monday.

"Health care is really a national problem, and we all need to do things to get it under control," he said. "Just to impose a punitive, discriminatory tax is certainly not the way to address health care needs."

On Thursday, the PEIA Finance Board voted to put the "fat tax" option out for public comment during a series of public hearings around the state on PEIA's proposed 2010-11 benefits package. Those hearings begin Nov. 9 in Charleston.

Unless the PEIA Finance Board calls an emergency meeting to remove it from consideration, the issue of higher premiums for overweight employees will still be a topic of discussion for the public hearings.

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