MORGANTOWN – Monongalia County Commissioner Sean Sikora said the county’s fiscal year 2025-’26 budget passed Wednesday was among the most challenging he’s experienced in the position.
Sikora, who spearheads the budgeting process alongside County Administrator Rennetta McClure, noted the upcoming spending plan totals $43,675,929.
That’s down slightly from the $44,244,654 budget passed by the commission this time last year and down 7.1% from where that budget sits currently, at $47,060,403.
Even so, the commission intends to keep levy rates unchanged, making this the eighth consecutive budgeting cycle in which rates were either lowered or held in place.
The projected budget is predicated on rates of 22 cents per $100 of assessed value for Class II (owner occupied) property and 44 cents for all other properties in a municipality (Class III) or the county (Class IV).
Much of the county’s anticipated reduction in revenues is tied specifically to a state-directed change in the valuation process for Class III properties with oil and gas considerations.
The end result of that change, Sikora explained, is roughly a $2.5 million, or 10.99%, decrease in property taxes.
This is the second consecutive budgeting cycle in which the Class III valuations have fluctuated wildly. Last year, the county anticipated an overall 14% jump in property taxes based on a nearly 30% increase in Class III alone. This year, Class III valuations are down 18%.
Commissioner Tom Bloom said Monongalia County is fortunate in that it has a more diversified economy than much of the state.
“I don’t want to say it’s a red flag down the road for the state of West Virginia and Mon County, but it’s a yellow flag that we need to be very careful about moving forward. We are very fortunate that we are able to cover it, but down the road, we need to be careful,” Bloom said. “We do not know what the state’s going to do.”
Commission President Jeff Arnett noted the spending plan also factored in an increase of $1.5 million in health insurance premiums.
“We don’t know exactly what that’s going to be yet,” he said. “It could be higher. It could be lower, but that’s conservatively what we’re anticipating in an increase.”
Despite the increased strain, all three commissioners said they’re pleased with the budget the county has put together.
Arnett noted 51 of the 60 agencies that requested financial support will receive some amount of grant funding, totaling $1 million. That number does not include $500,000 for the Monongalia County Health Department.
The amount of funding going to the county’s constitutional offices is up more than $750,000, or 4.11% over the current budget and, when taken on average, eligible county employees will see wages increase by 3.9%.
The county no longer grants across-the-board raises, opting instead to make raises part of the budgeting requests put forward by constitutional office holders.
Sikora admits there is a large fluctuation in raise percentages – from 2.8% up into the teens – as the county tries to target areas of need identified by office holders in order to keep county wages competitive.
The commission is anticipating about $11.5 million in carryover, which includes a contingency fund of $3.2 million.
“It’s pretty impressive to have a revenue drop of about 7% and still put forward a budget that increases spending where we need to and still has a very, very robust contingency account,” Sikora said.
The 2025-’26 fiscal year begins July 1.
