MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In an effort to better plan finances and track the city’s fiscal trends, a two-year budget was presented to Morgantown City Council on Tuesday and passed unanimously on first reading.
Council’s vote to approve the budget pertained only to the $37.3 million 2019-’20 spending plan, which takes effect July 1 and runs through June 30, 2020.
While the coming year’s budget indicates Morgantown anticipates modest increases in both general and capital revenue, it is the 2020-’21 spending plan that is likely to generate discussion.
Looking one year out, the city is anticipating the implementation of a 1 percent sales tax — with revenue estimates between $5 million and $6 million — and the creation of a new municipal fire service fee.
The new fire service fee would be an effort to offset the declining percentage of fire department expenses covered by the city’s existing fire fees and offset an expiring three-year, $1.7 million federal grant which allowed the city to hire a dozen new firefighters in 2018.
City Manager Paul Brake explained the city’s fire fees, which are based on a property’s square footage, cover just over half of the fire department’s expenses, with the rest of the department’s budget coming from the city’s general fund.
While specific details of the fire service fee amount were not included, the 2020-’21 budget document anticipates it will generate just over $1 million.
As for the sales tax, it is anticipated its implementation would come with mandated reductions in business and occupation taxes pertaining to retail and manufacturing.
The city was previously granted permission to implement the tax through the state’s Home Rule Pilot Program in 2014 and is now on the clock to enact it as the program is set to expire without legislative intervention.
It is anticipated that council wouldn’t take up a vote on the tax until May or June.
Brake noted the sales tax is the final significant and reliable revenue generator the city has at its disposal.
It is anticipated that the sales tax will be used to increase the city’s appropriation to BOPARC for capital improvements and begin paying down legacy costs — meaning police, fire and employee pensions, as well as other post-employment benefits.
In other city news, Patrick Hathaway, president of the 1st Ward Neighborhood Association, asked the city to conduct an investigation after a freedom of information request left him with questions regarding the signatures collected by at least two candidates in the upcoming city council election.
Candidates must submit a petition with at least 75 signatures as part of the filing process.
Hathaway wouldn’t indicated which candidates to which he was referring, but he raised questions about whether a couple could sign for one another, as well as whether potentially forged signatures were counted on multiple petitions.
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Story by Ben Conley