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Publication: The Dominion Post
Release Date: 01/30/08
Contact: Eric Bowen
Area residents raised a number of questions Tuesday about a proposed $2-a-week service fee up for a vote Saturday.
About 73 people attended a forum at South Middle School that delved into how the fee would affect them and everyone else who draws a paycheck in Monongalia County.
While many were simply asking for information, others questioned the need for the fee, which would help to pay for millions of dollars in road upgrades.
Some people said they didn’t like the fact that lower-income people and students on work-study would have to pay the fee. Others wondered if the fee would stay in effect past its proposed 30-year expiration date.
Forum-goers also wanted to know what happens if the service fee doesn’t pass.
Chet Parsons, director of the Greater Morgantown Metropolitan Planning Organization, said there isn’t much alternative if voters don’t approve the service fee. The state doesn’t have a lot of money to put toward road construction, and other options, such as impact fees or tolls, are not possible right now.
Parsons did say an alternative would be to raise the gasoline tax, but with gas resting at more than $3 a gallon, he didn’t think there would be much support.
“None of the other tools would generate the funds that we’re looking for to do these projects,” Parsons said. “No one is interested in paying a gas tax right now, but that is something we would need to look at.”
Forum-goers also wanted to know if the state would take over the roads and maintain them once they were built.
Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox, who was one of the panel members at the forum, said unequivocally that the state will maintain new roads if they are built to state standards.
He also said the state has taken a look at how much money will be available for roads, and has had to cut its estimates of the number of projects it can pay for.
“When we looked at the funding sources available, there is very little money available for these projects,” Mattox said. “We had to break the news to them that we don’t have the money to build these projects.” Because the state is not going to be providing much money for road projects, the county had to look for other ways to pay for them, Monongalia County Commission President Bob Bell said. That’s why the county turned to funding roads with a $2 service fee.
Steve LaCagnin, fee advisory board chairman, said a County Commission order would end the fee at the latest by 2039. Bonds would be sold only for 30 years, and could be paid off earlier if the money is available.
Bell also said the fee would be limited to pay for projects named on the ballot.
Bell said the service fee is the only funding mechanism the County Commission has found to pay for area roads.
“We put together a committee to study these recommendations and put this before the public,” Bell said. “We are not saying ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ to the proposal, but we are asking you, the citizens, to make an informed decision.”
John and Kristie Gregory attended the forum and said it offered information they hadn’t heard before. But Kristie Gregory said she planned to vote against the fee, and wasn’t going to change her mind.
Gregory said she thinks the fee doesn’t address the root of the problem, which she identified as uncontrolled development in the county. She also thinks the county and state need to improve mass transit before building roads.
“I think building the roads and making them more accessible just makes them more available for development,” Gregory said. “They just come in and build and you find out about it later.”
Dave Lemley told the panel that instead of charging all wage-earners a fee, the county should put in place impact fees for development.
Impact fees would require countywide zoning and planning, Bell said, which the county doesn’t have.
Lemley also said low-income people shouldn’t have to pay, and the county should wait until that issue is addressed by the state Legislature.
“It’s unfair for everyone to pay the same thing,” Lemley said.
Ralph Neal said he wanted there to be more debate at the forum. He said there has been little opportunity for that type of debate in a public setting.
“The panel was one-sided, but you expected that coming in,” Neal said. “I think a debate might have been useful.”
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