By Damian Phillips, The Exponent Telegram
WESTON, W.Va. — Lewis County Commissioner Agnes Queen has worn many hats during her tenure as a local politician, and that included a recent one-year term as president of the West Virginia Association of Counties.
“I just handed over the gavel to our next president, Mason County Clerk Diana Cromley,” Queen said.
Each year, the organization picks a new president who has a different role with their county. This includes clerks, county commissioners, circuit judges and sheriffs.
After six years, another commissioner will serve as president, Queen said.
“Each of us has a different need,” she said. “For instance, clerks, they do a lot with the elections and records, so they may have lobbying issues, where the county commission may have something else.”
However there are a few bills that all presidents of the organization generally lobby for to lawmakers in the West Virginia Legislature.
She noted addressing something called the rollback clause, which decreases a county’s levy rate based on the height of its property assessments.
“When your county is doing well economically, your values should go up, not down,” she said. “This year in Lewis County, the values in our county went up, and it rolled our levy back so we collect less taxes, which is absurd. We’re just trying to get an even playing field.