HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — One member of Huntington’s City Council is calling for a public vote on a proposal to take Huntington’s user fee from its current $3 a week to $5 a week to generate additional money for the Huntington Police and Huntington Public Works Department.
Rebecca Thacker, an at-large council member, said the issue is too large to leave to the 11 council members along with Huntington Mayor Steve Williams.
“It affects all of Huntington’s workers and workers that work in Huntington that are not even residents of Huntington,” Thacker told MetroNews. With a public vote, “That way the people would have more say.”
The finance committee for Huntington’s City Council was scheduled to take up the proposed user fee increase during a 6 p.m. meeting Monday. Public comments were supposed to be allowed during that meeting.
As of now, Thacker said she is planning to oppose the increase personally and on behalf of her constituents. Most of the calls she’s received up to this point, she said, have been against the hike which would add up to $260 annually from each worker in Huntington.
“Yes, they would like to have better streets, but they would also like to have food and their housing and other issues taken care of too.”
Thacker said, if this latest proposed increase is approved, she’s also concerned the user fee will only continue to grow in the coming years.
Last week on MetroNews “Talkline,” Williams said he was backing the proposed increase as a way to generate an additional $3 million in funding for police, street maintenance and other road repair work.
The $3 a week user fee has been charged to workers in Huntington since 2009. In 2012, as Huntington’s finance committee chair, Williams opposed a proposed increase from $3 to $5 from then-Mayor Kim Wolfe.
Three years later, Williams has a different view. “This is the easiest (option), even though it’s the most regressive fee that we could put in place and it gives us an opportunity to act now,” he has said.