CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Charleston City Council voted Monday night to increase the city’s user fee $1 over the next 5 years.
The fee, which only applies to residents who work in the capital regardless of where they reside, will go up to $2.50 in 2016 and to $3 in 2020. Councilman Ed Talkington, who proposed the bill, thought it was the only answer to raise more money for the city.
“It is, quite frankly, the only way we can raise the amount of money necessary to adequately pave roads, and have the potential for providing additional police protection,” Talkington said.
The raise was not met without opposition. A motion to table the bill until further notice was voted down 15 to 9, as several council members wanted to discuss the matter another time. Resident Jennifer Balman spoke out on how much the tax hurts the poor.
“Two dollars is a big deal. The mayor is talking like it’s only 50 cents. No, it’s $2.50 and next (In 2020) it’s $3,” she said furiously. “That is a huge penalty. On a $100 check, (that’s) 3 percent of the person’s gross income.”
Councilman Chuck Overstreet acknowledged that the tax would be the least painful to raise, but also pointed out that Mayor Danny Jones during his campaign for his fourth term promised he would not raise the user fee. He was hoping to discuss the matter at a future meeting after more discussion.
“Why can’t they wait? I was in favor of waiting about a month,” he said. “Dig into the budget, find out where there might be some waste in the budget and then possibly vote on the user fee raise. Maybe the (raise) could have been a quarter instead of 50 cents.”
Talkington admitted the tax would be more difficult to bear for people on low or fixed income, but said they’ve taken steps in writing the bill to help with that.
“Yes it is harder on the poor. We understand that,” Talkington said. “That’s one of the reasons that when we originally passed it, because there are people that work more than one minimum wage job, we set it up so that you can file paperwork to pay from one job and not two or three.’
Jones gave a passionate speech in favor of the raise before it passed, pointing out that eliminating parks and recreation would free up $3 million, but nobody would want to see that. Talkington agreed with the mayor’s assessment.
“I don’t think anyone on council wants to eliminate swimming pools or the parks and rec department. There’s no big budget item you can go to and say let’s get rid of that.”
Charleston’s user fee was first instituted in January 2004.