Parkersburg officials go over their proposed 1 percent sales tax at Monday’s meeting of the West Virginia Municipal Home Rule Board. From left are John Rockhold, president of Parkersburg City Council; Development Director Rickie Yeager; Finance Director Ashley Flowers; and Mayor Robert Newell.
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — The West Virginia Municipal Home Rule Board on Monday gave eight cities in the pilot program the green light to impose sales taxes or increase existing ones.
The Home Rule Board’s action clears the way for Charles Town, Martinsburg, Milton, Nitro, Parkersburg, Ranson, Vienna and Wheeling to have two readings on ordinances to enact or amend the taxes.
“I was very pleased that the cities knew exactly what the board was looking for, that they had crossed their T’s and dotted their I’s,” board Chairman Patsy Trecost said following the special meeting in Fairmont.
The board also scheduled its next meeting for 9 a.m. Jan. 6 to accommodate other new municipalities looking to impose a sales tax for the next fiscal year beginning July 1.
The board agreed to meet quarterly after that.
Under an exception to the Code of State Rules, municipalities wanting to impose a sales tax by July 1, 2015, must notify the state tax commissioner 150 days before the effective date of the tax. That would be the first of February.
Ordinarily, the deadline is 180 days before the tax would go into effect.
To enact an ordinance under the home rule program, cities must have a public hearing on the measure and seek approval from the board. If the board gives its OK, the municipalities must have two readings and a public hearing on the proposal.
Municipalities in the home rule program can impose a sales tax up to 1 percent, provided they reduce business and occupation taxes…