MORGANTOWN – The city of Morgantown will lose about $4.5 million a year if a bill passed out of the House Political Subdivisions Committee on Wednesday makes it all the way through the legislative process.
HB 2256 originated as a bill to exempt state employees from municipal user fees. Morgantown charges a $3 weekly fee and would lose somewhere from $1.2 million to $1.6 million per year under that scenario – with WVU employees and other state employees working inside the city limits exempted.
The committee started work on the bill last week and resumed Wednesday afternoon. Delegate Geoff Foster, R-Putnam, offered an amendment to do away with all employee-based user fees, with an exemption for cities that have tied municipal bonds to the fees so that the bonds can be retired before the fees end in those cities.
The amendment caused consternation among delegates representing cites with user fees.
During the question-and-answer portion of the deliberations, Susan Economou, deputy executive director of the Municipal League, told the delegates that the fees fund police and fire department operations and street paving.
In border towns especially, she said out-of-town and out-of-state workers shoulder a significant portion of the burden for the services that the cities provide. Eliminating the user fee would shift the burden to city residents and businesses.
Cities would have limited options to make up the lost revenue she said: increased sales taxes, increased business and occupation taxes, increased property taxes via excess levies. The other option would be service cuts.
Also, she agreed, eliminating the fees would create unfunded liabilities in the cities that charge user fees.
The Municipal League reports that nine cities levy user fees: Chester, Fairmont, Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown, Parkersburg, Romney, Weirton and Wheeling.
The League had provided a fiscal note on the bill’s original version showing how much the seven of the nine cities would have lost from state employees being exempted. Morgantown stood to lose the most: it received $1.576 million in Fiscal Year 2019, $1.269 million in FY 2020.
Delegate John Kelly, R-Wood, lives in Parkersburg, which charges a user fee. The bill itself will affect the city’s budget, he said. “It’s even going to be worse if we pass the amendment.”
Several delegates, including Delegate John Williams, D-Monongalia, argued that the amendment and the bill fly in the face of local control regularly preached at the Capitol.
Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, said, “We’re pulling the rug out from under local governments that we once encouraged.”
Amendment – and bill – supporters argued that it’s a fairness issue. If state employees can be exempted, everyone should be.
Delegate Margitta Mazzocchi, R-Logan said it’s unfair that McDonald’s workers pay the same fee as higher-wage earners. She complained that as a legislator she pays the Charleston fee every week even though she’s only there part of the year. If cities want extra money to play around with and want nonresidents to pay more, they can raise the sales tax.
Delegate Heather Tully, R-Nicholas, also complained that she pays the Charleston fee even though she never voted for the city council that approved it. She cited the quote, “Taxation without representation is tyranny.”
Economou and several delegates said the fee isn’t actually a tax; it’s a fee for service.
Delegate Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, said that when police and firefighters show up to an emergency where you work, and the street’s paved, “you’ve been represented.”
Foster said that cities that charge the fees had police and fire service before the fees were enacted, and they’re used for “unnecessary stuff.”
Delegate Evan Hansen conceded that user fees are an imperfect system and it’s unfortunate that all have to pay the same fee. It was a contentious issue in Morgantown but the fee continues because it funds essential services. “We can take pride in our streets now,” except for the potholed state roads that run through town. “These are fees for services. We don’t have an extra $4 million to play around with.”
Morgantown’s user fee is called the Safe Streets and Safe Community Service Fee. The $3 weekly fee is split three ways: $1.23 for police, $1.20 for streets, 57 cents for public works. Morgantown implemented its user fee in 2016 and has used it to hire 10 police officers, five public works employees replace 20 vehicles, purchase new equipment for officers such as body cameras and pave roughly 30 miles worth of city streets.
Due to the impacts of COVID-19, the city is anticipating bringing in about $4 million in the 2022 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
“The Municipal Service Fee provides local governments with the ability to ensure that city streets are kept safe for residents and commuters – driving, riding, biking, and walking – and are maintained adequately. All employees, whether private or public, that work in the city benefit directly from these services,” Morgantown Mayor Ron Dulaney said, noting 42% of the city’s user fee is allocated to the city’s police department.
“We are surprised that our conservative supermajority in the state Legislature would even consider an action to ‘defund’ the police and other public safety measures as proposed today by this action by the Political Subdivision Committee. Stripping decision-making in matters such as this from local, elected representatives of our municipalities and consolidating decision-making about local decisions in Charleston two and a half hours away defies good government, good decision-making, and conservative values,” Dulaney said.
“We are thankful for Delegate Williams and Delegate Hansen and the other delegates from both parties in the Political Subdivision Committee who recognized this proposal for what it is and voted against it today.”
The amendment passed in a roll call vote 14-8. The bill passed 12-10. It goes next to House Finance.
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