PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — A proposal to go before the Parkersburg City Council on Tuesday would exempt businesses from the first $500 of their business and occupation tax for the final quarter of the fiscal year.
Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce is submitting the plan as businesses struggle to adjust financially to the coronavirus pandemic because of a lack of customers.
“We look at it as a mechanism to preserve, both in the medium- and the long-term, the employment and tax base,” he said. “Anything that we can do to help these smaller businesses now weather this storm is going to pay dividends for the city and the future.”
Joyce said the resolution would guarantee a revenue shortfall for the current fiscal year, but the move is necessary.
“We need those small businesses and particularly those jobs that those small businesses provide to be here in Parkersburg in three months, six months, nine months moving forward,” he said. “That’s frankly what makes our economy go.”
Joyce has urged city council members to “look past the next election” and do what is best for the community.
The Parkersburg City Council will meet Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., in which the meeting will be broadcasted on YouTube.