A 1% municipal sales tax and five code enforcement matters are included in the city of Westover’s application for the West Virginia Municipal Home Rule Program.
On Monday, Westover City Council passed on first reading an ordinance authorizing the submission of the city’s application — for the second time.
Council previously took the matter up in May with the goal of getting its application before the Municipal Home Rule Board during its July 12 meeting. However, a procedural oversight reset the process and now has the city aiming for the board’s October meeting.
As previously reported, Home Rule began as a four-city pilot program in 2007 with the goal of giving the state’s municipalities freedom within the law to tackle unique challenges. It was made a permanent program in 2019 and opened to all the state’s municipalities.
While Westover hopes to use Home Rule to address several code enforcement matters, the most impactful part of its plan likely surrounds the implementation of a 1% municipal sales tax.
City Clerk Sandie Weis said preliminary estimates indicate the tax could have a $3.3 million impact on the city’s bottom line.
Assuming that number is close, it would represent a roughly 25% increase in revenues based on the $12.4 million budget adopted by city council back in March.
If a sales tax is ultimately implemented, the Home Rule program mandates it come with reductions in business and occupation privilege taxes — meaning non-construction B&O taxes. Those taxes fall into a number of categories, including amusement, banking, contracting, manufacturing, public service utility, rental, retail, service and wholesale.
For example, Morgantown was granted permission to create a sales tax as part of its original Home Rule application back in 2014. In conjunction with that, the city reduced B&O retail taxes from .5% to .45% and B&O service taxes from 1% to .9%.
Westover’s Home Rule application also includes code enforcement changes that would allow the city to:
- Issue on-the-spot citations for reoccurring exterior sanitation and common nuisance violations like trash/rubbish, overgrown weeds and grass, junked cars, broken windows and others.
- Place a lien on a property violating the city’s public nuisance ordinance without first obtaining an order from the circuit court. Currently the city cannot remove the nuisance and lien on the affected realty for costs incurred should the owner ignore orders from the city.
- Shorten the time for forfeiture of structures when owners refuse to address code violations. This change would allow the city to address dilapidated properties in a total of 16 months rather than the current 28 months.
- Manage longstanding blighted and vacant properties after due notice to the owner and place liens on city-remediated properties without a court order.
- Collect liens for demolition expenses. The high bidder at a tax lien auction must pay the city’s demolition lien before the sheriff could issue a certificate of sale.
A second reading and public hearing of the city’s Home Rule application will be held Aug. 7.
In other news from Monday’s meeting, council appointed Debra Scudiere to serve as the city’s municipal judge.
