CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia is already reaping benefits from recent efforts to rein in public retiree health benefit costs, officials say: They expect to shrink the projected funding shortfall further, by more than $1 billion, and a Wall Street credit rating agency appears ready to praise the state's handling of its last major liability.

Just a few months ago, the Public Employees Insurance Agency estimated a $10 billion gap between on-hand assets and health insurance coverage promised to teachers and other public workers once they retire. It was one of the largest unfunded liabilities, per-capita, from these non-pension benefits among the states. Such costs are known as other post-employment benefits, or OPEB.

But the agency cut that estimate in half to $5 billion late last year, through steps including limiting the annual growth of subsidies that help retirees pay their health premiums. Last week, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed legislation he proposed that embraced several PEIA actions targeting the funding shortfall. Among its other provisions, this measure also dedicates annual state revenues to a special trust fund to cure the liability by 2036.