Wheeling plan on Monday’s home rule board agenda

WHEELING, W.Va. — The state Home Rule Board meets Monday in Fairmont with an agenda that will include a possible tax increase in Wheeling.

Wheeling Mayor Andy McKenzie said they want to add a half-cent to the current municipal sales tax and use the money to pay down police and firefighter pension debt. McKenzie said the move would save the city several millions of dollars a year.

“I don’t know how the City of Wheeling and other cities will survive into the future without making these types of investments and changes in the city,” McKenzie said.

Wheeling City Council held a public hearing last Friday on its plan that includes the sales tax increase and a reduction in the city’s business and occupation tax by six percent. McKenzie says if nothing is done Wheeling would eventually face a $7 million a year pension debt payment. The debt is around $70 million. The tax increase is expected to bring in about $2.1million a year.

“We’re shifting to consumption tax, which is sales tax and we’re reducing a tax on the job creators and producers in our community. This is just a huge chunk of opportunity we can do other things with,” the mayor said of the money the city now allocates to pension debt.

Wheeling is freezing existing police and firefighter pensions Jan. 1 and then all new police officers and firefighters hired will move into the state pension plan for cities.

Wheeling is one of four original home rule pilot project cities. McKenzie said the city has taken advantage of the opportunity by reducing permitting, reducing the fire service fee on personal property and now reducing the business and occupation tax, something McKenzie called “the most archaic tax in the state of West Virginia.”

The mayor said the impact of the Home Rule program cannot be underestimated.

“I think it will be viewed as probably one of the greatest legislative changes the state of West Virginia has made in modern history,” McKenzie said. “It’s really enabled cities to make changes we were never able to make and really started to make cities more competitive.”

The Home Rule Board meeting begins at 9 a.m. Monday.





More News

News
MetroNews This Morning 3-28-24
Summary of West Virginia news/sports/weather for Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024 - 6:25 am
News
PSC approves settlements involving Mon Power, net-metering cases
Rate increase went into effect Tuesday.
March 27, 2024 - 9:42 pm
News
Speakers at Focus Forward symposium discuss AI capabilities in West Virginia
The event was organized by the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
March 27, 2024 - 8:30 pm
News
Justice vetoes vaccination exemption bill, draws praise from healthcare groups
Educational and healthcare organizations banded together to urge a veto.
March 27, 2024 - 6:35 pm


Your Comments