MORGANTOWN – The glass-half-full among us might say level, steady, consistent.
The less optimistic might phrase it stagnant, static or stuck.
Whatever words you prefer, when it comes to the city of Morgantown’s annual budget, the word chosen by the professionals in charge is “flat.”
Morgantown Finance Director Jon Ferguson has used the budgetary f-word frequently during recent presentations on the city’s upcoming $45,376,480 2025-’26 spending plan.
“Given the flattening revenue projections, expenditure requests and priorities have been carefully evaluated and constrained,” Ferguson explained in a budget breakdown provided to Morgantown City Council.
Compare that to what former Finance Director Kevin Tennant told council last year around this time.
“Revenues are good. I don’t want to say they’re not, but they have flattened out. I think the goal for this year and the goal going forward is to closely monitor expenses and control expenses.,” Tennant said. “If we back out the carryover amount … we get just a little over $39 million in revenue, and that’s where we’ve been for the last several years.”
And that’s where the numbers remain.
The city anticipates revenues, minus carryover, to come in at $39,417,730 in the upcoming fiscal year.
Estimates project about 41% of the city’s revenues will be generated through business and occupation taxes. As for actual numbers, the projections remain unchanged from the current fiscal year – $14,575,000 in general B&O taxes and $1.5 million in B&O Construction taxes, which are generated by construction projects of more than $5 million.
Ferguson said the B&O construction number is one area where the city may see some fluctuation as the upcoming fiscal year unfolds.
“We actually do know a significant project which has started. That’s the WVU Medicine eye center and parking garage project. We are anticipating that we will bring in a significant amount of business and occupation tax revenue. We just can’t predict for our budget purposes the exact timing and the exact amount,” he said. “So, because we can’t estimate an exact dollar amount or a reasonable estimate of how much that is, we are not budgeting for that additional amount.”
The city’s municipal sales tax is its second largest earner. Despite a 10% reduction in projected revenue tied to mapping changes at the state level, the city is anticipating just over $9 million. Those revenues are split evenly four ways between BOPARC, the city’s general fund, the capital escrow fund and police/fire pensions.
At an estimated $4.76 million, property taxes make up about 12% of the city’s overall revenue.
“That particular percentage has not changed or wavered over the past five years. And if you look back 10 years and even further in history, that percentage is relatively the same percent year after year after year,” Ferguson said. “We don’t see an increase in our property taxes at all.”
The city’s other significant revenue sources and projections include: Fire fees, including a one-time 15% increase ($4,577,500); $3 weekly municipal service fee ($4,200,000).
“If you were to take your hand and just move it across, from left to right, even with the potential 10% decrease in sales tax, and even with the one-time increase of 15% in our fire fee, we’re still budgeting and expecting relatively flat, stable revenues overall for our general fund,” Ferguson said. “You can see right here, our fiscal year 2024 actual revenue was $39.7 million. Our 2025 budget was $39.7 million and our 2026 proposed budget is $39.4 million. Relatively flat.”
While revenues remain consistent, personnel costs, which make up the overwhelming majority of the city’s expenditures, continue to creep up.
Ferguson said the city limited the creation of new general fund positions in the upcoming budget to two – a new grant technician and a new firefighter to replace the firefighter now stationed at the Morgantown Municipal Airport.
The city is providing a 2.7% cost of living adjustment for employees, in addition to an average “step” increase of .8% based on the city’s compensation plan.
The result of the COLA is an increase of approximately $316,000 in salary, taxes and pension contributions.
The 2025-’26 fiscal year begins July 1.
