The goal is to have a bill ready by Dec. 15, Manchin said Monday after the first meeting of a working group studying the future costs of other post-employment benefits, also known as the OPEB debt.

But first members of the working group must agree on the facts and figures used to determine the debt, estimated by the Public Employees Insurance Agency at about $7 billion.

"This is a serious problem," Manchin said. "We have to understand the severity and the magnitude of it, but also we all have to be on the same page as far as the numbers."

National accounting standards require states, counties and municipalities to include OPEB liabilities in financial statements.

Many county schools systems in West Virginia are prepared to take legal action over who is responsible for the promised future benefits and how the debt is to be reported on those financial statements.

Meanwhile, teachers unions plan to sue over a decision by PEIA's finance board to stop subsidizing health insurance premiums in retirement for public employees hired after June 30, 2010.

Judy Hale, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, said Monday that the union still planned to give 30 days notice of a lawsuit but also that she was pleased with the governor's meeting and believed he was sincere in trying to find a solution.

"It was a very good meeting, very good open dialogue, good questions," Hale said. "Hopefully we can get to the point where we can think of some possible solutions other than retirees having nothing to help them with their health care."

Monday's meeting served as more of an organizational gathering, Manchin said, but it also gave members a chance to raise questions they hope to answer soon.

"We're trying to make sure that we all understand the gravity of what we're doing, of what we have in our state, what's going to happen if we do nothing, how other states are handling it, so we look at comparisons," Manchin said. "Also we're monitoring the private sector, people that work for manufacturers or mining or small businesses, how they're coping with it."

The private sector represents a substantial taxpayer interest, West Virginia Chamber of Commerce President Steve Roberts said.

"The idea of the working group is to gather facts so that at the end of this, whenever the end might be, we at least have a better handle of what the facts are in terms of what the size of the deficit is, how it was determined, what its rate of growth is determined to be," Roberts said.

If nothing changes, that estimated $7 billion liability is expected to grow to $18 billion by 2030, Manchin said.

"That means every child, every person in this state is going to have to subsidize that," the governor said. "Every working person in the private sector, basically their tax base is going to subsidize that."

Issues for the working group to study include hiring practices and benefit packages, as well as what effect any federal health care legislation might have, Manchin said.

"What are our hiring practices? Are we being very aggressive, and are we competitive in our hiring practices whether it's for law enforcement, whether it's for technical workers, whether it's for educators?" Manchin said. "Our benefit packages -- are we more generous or not generous enough? Are we about right where we should be?

"Then when we look at all of those things, how does the private sector compete in the same arena?" Manchin said. "It's putting fairness to the system and looking at it rationally, not emotionally."

Health care was not as expensive decades ago when many benefits were given, Manchin said.

"'You're paying $100 a month, oh, we'll take care of it, we can afford that,'" Manchin said. "Well, $100 turns into $2,500 a month. Now you've got serious costs."

The group's next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 31, Manchin said. He hoped members could begin drafting legislation in November.

"Everybody at that table wants to fix something," Manchin said. "Rather than just complain about what's not working, they want to fix it. We stay in that mode, we'll fix things."

Contact writer Michelle Saxton at michelle.sax...@dailymail.com or 304-348-4843.