MORGANTOWN – “It seems as if there’s no shortage of ways that people want to try to mess with municipalities and the way they govern themselves,” Delegate John Williams, D-Monongalia, said during a recent sit-down with leadership from the city of Morgantown.
The city concurs.
In response, it’s asking its local representatives to advocate on behalf of municipalities when the West Virginia Legislature convenes for its 2026 session on Jan. 14.
In particular, there’s concern about ongoing discussion about changes, or even the elimination, of business and occupation taxes, which represents the city’s largest revenue source – about 41% of its current $45.4 million budget.
Business and occupation (B&O) taxes are taxes collected from anyone conducting business within the corporate limits of a city.
Cities like Morgantown have also watched anxiously as legislators have taken up bills to potentially eliminate or restrict the ability of cities to impose user fees on people working within their boundaries.
Morgantown has had a $3 weekly municipal service fee on the books since 2016. It’s expected to generate about $4.2 million for the city this fiscal year.
“I am concerned the long game is taking away cities’ ability to levy funds, and that would be making the B&O tax illegal,” Williams said. “I don’t like the B&O tax. I don’t know anybody who really does like the B&O tax, but when you ask legislators in Charleston, ‘Well, what can we replace it with?’ They aren’t going to give you anything. So, I fear that in these times, that part of the game is to try to just suck all the money out of cities and make you toothless. That goes along with the user fee as well.”
Morgantown City Councilor Mark Downs said cities are where “the rubber meets the road” when it comes to providing services to citizens.
“Status quo for the city of Morgantown, just so you all know, looks like revenue is down 22% in the last 10 years. So, from a growth perspective, that’s where we are. You know, I still put our services that we provide up against anyone else in the state. We do a great job, but it gets harder and harder every year. So, when you talk about things like taking B&O and revenue sources away, it’s really compounding,” Downs said.
The councilor went on to say the legislature did “a disservice to the citizens of our state” in 2020 by requiring unanimous consent from all impacted freeholders and businesses before land can be annexed into a city through minor boundary adjustment. That legislation was signed into law directly on the heels of a sweeping, and controversial, expansion plan put forward by Morgantown leadership.
“Several of you mentioned our fire services, our police services, EMS. I think about [Morgantown Utility Board]. MUB is provided based on the good faith of the city of Morgantown. I know not everybody realizes that, but we are out there leveraging our credit to extend infrastructure all over the county. And who knows, soon I would project that at some point we’ll be outside of the county,” Downs said. “So, from a fairness and equitability standpoint, I just wanted to share all that so you can all advocate for us when you’re down in Charleston.”
While revenue is certainly top of mind, recent bills signed into law, or taken up and eventually killed, include issues like imposing camping bans and panhandling laws statewide, altering municipal election dates, allowing certain nonresidents to vote in municipal elections, limiting the ability of cities to impose restrictions on data centers, and restricting what language cities can have in nondiscrimination ordinances, among others.
Senator Joey Garcia (D-Marion) called some of these efforts “attacks that have been almost not even hidden about places like Morgantown and places that are doing well across the state of West Virginia.”
Delegate Evan Hansen (D-Monongalia) said he foresees a continued effort to micromanage municipalities in the forthcoming session.
“I would imagine that those are going to continue. One of my priorities is to fight against those to make sure that the city can manage its own affairs. That includes a number of things, including your right to have non-discrimination ordinances, because I think that is an important part of our community,” Hansen said. “Also, playing defense against that bill that started the legislative process last session that basically said people who live in the county can vote in city elections, which, I think, is one of the more crazy bills. I can’t even believe it made it on an agenda and started passing through the legislature, but at least we were able to kill it last year. So, a lot of what we’re going to do is play defense because we’re in the minority party and that’s what we have to do.”
The commentary from Williams, Hansen and others falls in line with remarks offered by West Virginia Treasurer Larry Pack during the most recent West Virginia Municipal League Annual Conference hosted by Morgantown in August.
Pack went so far as to call Charleston, and specifically the legislature, “anti-city.”
“We need more local control. We used to believe in that. I’m a Republican. I believe in local control, but our actions don’t say that,” Pack said, drawing applause from the crowd. “We need local control. I don’t agree with everything my city does. I love my mayor. She’s awesome, but we don’t agree on everything. That’s okay. We’re not supposed to.”
Senator Mike Oliverio (R-Monongalia) echoed that sentiment.
“I have made an effort to defend your right to pass ordinances, against the desires of some of my colleagues, but I have defended your right to do that, even when I disagree with some of those. And I’ll continue to be a strong partner,” Oliverio said, later adding, “I’m always going to try to work with our cities. In my mind, a state whose cities aren’t green and growing is a state that is ripe and rotting, and so our cities have to grow.”
