MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — As Monongalia County Commissioners continue meeting with all parties involved regarding a complicated tax refund situation, Morgantown City Councilman Ryan Wallace hopes the municipal government will have more involvement.
Wallace was “irked” that no representative from the city took part in previous meetings with the Monongalia County Commission. Those meetings have focused on how best to refund tax dollars that were collected over a period of more than three years from University Park at Evansdale and West Virginia Campus Housing.
A ruling by the State Supreme Court last month determined that the proper valuation for the $90 million public/private development was zero, rather than the $9 million assessed by the county in 2015.
“I’m from the city, and I pay attention,” Wallace said. “That kind of irked me a little bit that nobody from the city showed up last time.”
In contrast, numerous representatives from the Monongalia County Board of Education — another entity needing to provide reimbursement — were on hand during a prior meeting last month.
“That kind of bothered me,” Wallace said. “I would have liked to have attended.”
He added: “I do intend to attend the next meeting.”
That next meeting is Jan. 2, and Wallace said he has plenty of questions.
“I want to know where the money is coming from and how we are going to pay for it,” Wallace said. “First of all and better yet, did we save those moneys? Did we set them aside?”
The anticipated total to be repaid, including some interest, is $3,023,671.55 — including refunds from the state, the Monongalia County BOE, the City of Morgantown, and a number of other departments that benefitted from levies tied to the tax dollars.