CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The City of Charleston now has a bank account set up just for its civic center project.
City Council members approved a resolution to set up the account Monday night.
“It sets up a unique bank account for the city to house the proceeds from the property tax that’s designated from the TIF district, which is of course going to be used as funding debt service for the Civic Center project,” said Charleston finance director Joe Estep.
The move comes as accounting guidelines suggest the city set up a separate account for funds dedicated to a debt service. Estep said it’s necessary to make sure the funds are going toward their designated project.
The account should begin receiving funds as early as this Friday and Estep said the fund would continue to grow throughout the year.
“We anticipate through the next 11 months that we could receive as much as 228-thousand dollars give or take,” said Estep.
For fiscal year 2015, the city is anticipating around $500,000. Estep said the property tax from the TIF district—which contains portions of downtown Charleston— projected to total around $6 million for the project.
Estep said this is only part of the funding plan for the civic center renovations. In May, the council approved a plan for a half-cent sales tax increase projected to collect around $3.5 million per year and totaling between $45 million and $60 million over its lifetime to cover the project’s costs.
City Manager David Molgaard said tax collecting won’t begin until October and the city won’t see the funds until the start of next year.
Some of the financial plan is part of the current West Virginia Home Rule Pilot Project. No timetable has been released as to when plans for the civic center project would be finalized and construction can begin.