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West Virginia House bill ends employee-based city user fees; Morgantown stands to lose $4.5 million per year

By David Beard, The Dominion Post

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The city of Morgantown will lose about $4.5 million a year if a bill passed out of the House Political Subdivisions Committee on Wednesday makes it all the way through the legislative process.

HB 2256 originated as a bill to exempt state employees from municipal user fees. Morgantown charges a $3 weekly fee and would lose somewhere from $1.2 million to $1.6 million per year under that scenario – with WVU employees and other state employees working inside the city limits exempted.

The committee started work on the bill last week and resumed Wednesday afternoon. Delegate Geoff Foster, R-Putnam, offered an amendment to do away with all employee-based user fees, with an exemption for cities that have tied municipal bonds to the fees so that the bonds can be retired before the fees end in those cities.

The amendment caused consternation among delegates representing cites with user fees.

During the question-and-answer portion of the deliberations, Susan Economou, deputy executive director of the Municipal League, told the delegates that the fees fund police and fire department operations and street paving…

To read more: https://www.dominionpost.com/2021/02/24/house-bill-ends-employee-based-city-user-fees-morgantown-stands-to-lose-4-5-million-per-year/

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