TERRA ALTA — Members of the Terra Alta City Council met Tuesday evening to discuss the 2025-26 fiscal year budget and levies after failing to send its spending plan to the state this year.
During the monthly meeting, Mayor Dan Hauger shared there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
“Late in the day today [Tuesday], we had some correspondence back-and-forth with the state,” Hauger said. “What we have to do is hurry up and prepare the budget and then submit that budget to the state. Then what [the state] is going to do is take it to their law office and see what they can do to work something out to help us.”
Hauger added the state had provided documentation to help the city rebuild the 2025-26 budget.
There are possible consequences for turning the budget in late, however those consequences are still unknown at this time, Hauger noted.
The loss of the levy funds will heavily impact the library, the mayor said.
“The levy money would impact the library more than any other entity in the town,” he said. “And that would be crucial — so if we can save it, we certainly want to.”
Hayden Erwin, director of communications for the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office, said Wednesday that current law prohibits the auditor from approving a levy rate after May 1.
“If a municipality fails to file a valid budget, it may be unable to collect property taxes for that fiscal year,” he said. “While our office provides technical assistance, responsibility for compliance lies with local officials.”
Erwin added some of the consequences could include the exclusion of the municipality from county tax rolls.
The auditor’s office has never seen a municipality fail to meet all deadlines, Erwin said.
“To our knowledge, we have never had a municipality miss every deadline, though we continue offering our support as things progress,” he said.
Cross Kisner, an associate accountant at Dorinda Kisner CPA, told the council the failure to submit a budget to the state will result in a loss in levy funds.
The state “indicated that this will result in an estimated loss of approximately $210,000 due to the forfeiture of both the regular levy and the excess levy,” Kisner said. “This outcome raised a broader concern regarding the town’s future eligibility for levy revenue.”
Kisner added the levy rate will be reduced proportionately, to where the levy can produce no more than 101% of the previous year’s projected property tax revenues.
“No matter what percentage you take of zero, it will always be zero,” Kisner said.
During the public comments portion of the meeting, former recorder Josh Dodge shared his displeasure with the current council’s oversight in the failure to submit the 2025-26 budget.
