W.Va. Rainy Day Fund Takes a $133m Hit

The Wall Street meltdown has weakened West Virginia's emergency reserves by $133 million, spurring a debate over whether or how the state should invest such funds, The Associated Press reports.

"The so-called rainy day fund had equaled about 15 percent of the state's general revenue budget in June, for one of the best savings rates in the country," AP reports. "It now contains about $448 million, or 11.5 percent of general revenue," though "that's still better than the 10 percent level advocated by bond rating agencies."

While "Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick said the state should never have started investing its rainy day fund," Revenue Secretary Virgil Helton "advised against immediately yanking the fund's investments, as Helmick seemed to suggest."

"That would be the easy thing to do, and the dumb thing to do," the article quotes Helton as saying. "Helton said that while the values of its holdings have dropped, it could eventually regain all but about $50 million that had been invested with such global crisis casualties as Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual."

The Charleston Gazette also has coverage.