MORGANTOWN — More time and more money.
A pair of actions taken Wednesday by the Monongalia County Commission were aimed at providing both to what is arguably the state’s most successful tax increment finance, or TIF, district.
With the backing of the West Virginia Department of Economic Development in hand, the commission approved an order extending the Monongalia County Economic Opportunity Development District to 2057 and increasing the bonding capacity of the district from $50 million to $200 million.
The district — University Town Centre from Walmart to Exit 153, The Gateway and WestRidge — was originally created in 2012 with a 30-year life span.
While the extension will provide for future development stretching west across hundreds of available acres, it’s not universally supported.
At the implementation of a TIF district, a property tax base is set. For the life of the district, some levying bodies — in this instance the county, Granville and Westover — receive their share of that base number while any increase, or increment, that comes as a result of improvements goes back into infrastructure development for the district.
The town of Granville was critical to the district’s creation in 2012, but the area within that town — Walmart to Exit 153 — is now largely built out.
Mayor Patty Lewis said recent changes that allow TIFs to be extended without the consent of an impacted municipality are a “gross injustice” perpetrated by the West Virginia Legislature.
Lewis has said the TIF district diverts about $500,000 in property taxes (in today’s values) away from the town every year it’s in place.
“I’m not even sure how that’s legal, to take money from another governing body without their permission, but they saw fit to pass that,” she said. “I guess it is legal, but it’s got to be morally wrong to do that.”
As she routinely has, Lewis conceded the TIF has been beneficial to the town. Granville’s budget has increased more than 160% over the last decade. Lewis said that point has been made in response to all of her concerns.
“Nobody ever said to us, ‘Hey, for a Class IV town you guys did a pretty good job growing up with all that responsibility. We had three employees and three broken down vehicles, and I made a promise on a handshake that we would provide 24-hour police and fire as [University Town Centre] grew. Today we’ve extended that to 24-hour on-call street and office staff as well,” Lewis said, noting her job is to look out for the town’s future.
“It’s like we signed on for a 30-year home mortgage and halfway through the mortgage the bank says, ‘OK, we’re going to extend that to 40 years and, oh by the way, you’re going to pay the extra interest on it.’ That’s how I feel,” she said. “I don’t understand how the legislators let this happen.”
