Senator, Answer the Senator's Question
Senate Republicans Pass Stealth Increase in Property Taxes
They Let Counties Take
The Heat
Senate Republicans narrowly passed SB 609,
which would automatically raise every county’s property tax levy to the
statutory maximum, and cut the state school aid funding by the amount
raised.
How much will your county lose?
The move is a shell game to plug the state’s budget deficit
— to the tune of $79.3 million - by forcing local county boards of
education take the heat for the huge tax increase. The bill gives
counties the option to roll back the levy, but doing so would not restore the state
cuts, leaving mammoth holes in local county and BOE budgets.
The measure
narrowly passed, 17-16. How did your Senator vote?
“We’re voting an 18 percent increase on taxes,” said Senator Robert Plymale, D-Wayne. “I just want to make sure we understand we are voting
on a tax increase in this bill.”
Republican supporters struggled to admit that the bill was a
tax increase. Asked by Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, if the bill increased
taxes, Sen. Ryan Ferns, R-Ohio, said, “I think it does to the extent that the
board of education doesn’t opt to lower that rate down.”
“The money raised by the school levy stays, every dollar,
with the county board of education,” insisted Sen. Charles Trump, R-Morgan. “It
does affect, in an inverse way, the amount of money that the school aid formula
suggests that we provide to school boards.” The increase in property taxes will fall
hardest on the shoulders of our senior citizens and lower income families.
Well, ok then. Sounds like a tax increase to us.
Follow West Virginia Senate Democrats;
