MORGANTOWN — Members of the Monongalia County Commission said Wednesday that they’ve likely not seen the last of legislative attempts to end business inventory taxes, which bring millions to counties and boards of education.
The commission was prepared to take up a resolution addressing the issue on Wednesday, but opted not to after SJR 9, the Senate’s lynchpin business tax cut constitutional amendment, failed to reach a supermajority on Tuesday, essentially killing the effort.
SB 837, which is technically alive in the House but effectively useless and dead without the constitutional amendment to enable it, would have phased out three taxes over the course of six years, starting April 1, 2021: the manufacturing inventory, equipment and machinery tax; the retail inventory tax; and the personal property tax on automobiles, including ATVs and utility vehicles.
While the inventory tax’s impact on the state’s business climate doesn’t appear to be in dispute — Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom, a Democrat, has called it a “disastrous, horrible tax” — the questions around its elimination seem to steer less into party politics and more into the local impact of state mandates.
The multi-million dollar question — if you take this money away, how are you going to replace it?
In Monongalia County, SB 837 would have impacted nearly $11 million going to the board of education, just over $4 million to the county and nearly $600,000 divided among the municipalities.
“We were interested in having that discussion. Everybody is for it. The problem is, in the end, there wasn’t a lot of detail in how those taxes will be made up,” Commissioner Sean Sikora said. “That’s the issue, trust, and how those dollars would be made up.”
Commission President Ed Hawkins said this wasn’t the first time the legislature has taken a swing at eliminating the inventory tax, and it likely won’t be the last.
“I think that as long as this leadership is in there they’ll continue to bring it up,” Hawkins said. “The problem is they’re leaving the key players out of the discussion. My feeling is let’s involve the county commissions and the boards of education because they are going to be the ones who are going to be most affected.”
In other county news, the commission approved a zoning text amendment for the West Run Planning District — the only zoned district located in the county.
The amendment will change frontage requirements from 175 feet minimum to 125 feet minimum.
“The frontage requirement for this particular zoning district was slightly disproportionate to other things and it was turning out to be a bit of a problem,” County Planning Director Andrew Gast-Bray explained.
