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Justice: Local control will be taken away

Justice

PARKERSBURG — Local control will be taken away from local governments if the State Amendment 2 passes in the upcoming election, Gov. Jim Justice told a group of more than 30 people in Parkersburg on Monday.

Justice, along with Babydog, appeared at the Blennerhassett Hotel to talk to members of the community about his opposition to the state Amendment 2 that will be on the ballot in the upcoming general election.

Amendment 2 would provide the Legislature with the authority to exempt personal property (machinery, equipment, and inventory) used for business activity and personal motor vehicle property tax from property taxes collected. It also would give the Legislature spending control over 27 percent of all property taxes collected.

Justice asked people what they thought Amendment 2 was about.

“What you thought it was originally was getting rid of your car tax,” he said. “That is most generally what people think.”

He said the amendment has nothing to do with the car tax and people have been tricked into believing that.

Justice said there was a plan to get rid of personal income tax utilizing the state’s surplus budget revenues.

“And we could do this without changing the state’s constitution,” he said, adding they had a plan to get rid of the car tax without affecting the Constitution.

“Amendment 2 is you giving up your rights and you giving up your independence,” Justice said. “You are signing your soul away to Charleston.”

A plan to cut that tax by 10 percent immediately passed the House of Delegates in a recent special session. It passed the House of Delegates, but the state Senate would not take up the bill because of Amendment 2, West Virginia Secretary of Revenue Dave Hardy said.

People voted in the 1930s that the property tax revenue would stay local. That is the revenue that helps fund the counties and essential services.

“Amendment 2 in not in the best interest of the people of West Virginia,” Hardy said. “It will wreck our state’s budget and it will take away the Constitutional guarantee that local government has.”

Justice said people would still pay the car tax and it would be given right back electronically back into people’s accounts.

This would also allow them time to come up with a plan to get rid of the personal income tax that will not hamper local governments.

The amendment is because of the efforts of big business and ambitious politicians, the governor said.

Justice said if Amendment 2 passes his business interests will see big benefits, as will many out-of-state companies, but it will end up hurting people around the state and that is why he is opposing it.

“I’m the guy saying don’t do it,” the governor said.

He said the simplest way to sell it is to tell people it will get rid of their personal property tax on their vehicles.

If that happens, to fund the county every February officials are going to have to go to Charleston and line up with every other county and they will “have to beg for money,” Justice said.

The state could lose $500-$600 million or more.

“If we have any bump in the road, we are going to be upside down,” Justice said, adding the Legislature would have to force counties to deal with less funding if the money is not available and that money goes to fire departments, law enforcement, schools and other local services.

One local official, who owns a local business, said it will be like dealing with a credit card company and they will pay you when they feel like it and they don’t always immediately pay what they are supposed to.

“If you don’t stop this, you will regret it,” Justice said.

The Wood County Commission recently passed a resolution in opposition of Amendment 2.

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