MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monongalia County governmental agencies are learning more about the possible impact on tax revenues in voters approve Amendment 2 in the November General Election.
Monongalia County Assessor Mark Musick and West Virginia Association of Counties Executive Director Jonathan Adler conducted an Amendment 2 informational session in Morgantown Wednesday.
Adler said cutting the personal property tax has been a goal for the last several years and record surplus numbers have lawmakers making another attempt. Adler believes lawmakers are very sincere and want to provide tax relief, but the plan to offset the loss of revenue has not been presented to the association.
“There’s no real plan as to how they want to get there, they just know they have some money there they can utilize to do some things, but we don’t know what those things really are,” Adler said.
According to Musick, if Amendment 2 passes, the state legislature would gain control of allocating funds for county budgets possibly jeopardizing constitutionally protected local services. Additionally, TIF (Tax Increment Financing) districts in the state would lose revenue without a clear path to regain it. He said if passed counties would be forced to compete with one another to fully fund operating budgets.
“A lot of TIFs are made up of personal property which is machinery, equipment and the inventory side of it,” Musick said. “There is a real estate side to it, but not as much as you’re going to get from personal property.”
Mountain Line Transit Authority President and CEO David Bruffy said initial numbers from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy show they would lose as much as $500,000 in revenue if the amendment passes.
“That’s pretty significant out of a $2.3 million budget that’s going to be tough to overcome,” Bruffy said. “We’re really concerned about maintaining service.”
Bruffy said they providing information to riders about the proposal when possible.
In 2021, two-thirds of property tax revenue, or $1.28 billion funded county school districts. In Monongalia County, the school district received more than 68 percent of county property taxes or about $76.8 million.
“Is that money going to be back-filled, and how will it be back-filled?” Campbell asked. “Most importantly for us, is going to be back-filled because there’s no replacement for that money.”
Voter-approved excess levies for schools, parks or emergency response would also become concerns for county leaders if approved. Campbell said the district could be forced to increase bond rates to meet financial obligations or go back to tax payers for additional operating funds.
“We just entered into a new 5-year excess levy,” Campbell said. “So, we can’t go back to our community and ask to raise the levy rate in order to balance our budget.”