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ELKINS -- Randolph County Assessor Phyllis Yokum provided an update to the County Commission regarding the City of Elkins' Tax Increment Financing (TIF) project on Thursday.
Yokum spoke during the reports portion of the commission's regular meeting and addressed President David Kesling and Commissioner Cris Siler at the James F. Cain Courthouse Annex.
"This morning I sent a letter to (Elkins City Clerk) Sutton Stokes and to the County Commission concerning the TIF," Yokum said. "Back when it was first proposed, I gave the city a preliminary face value because they had to have that for their application.
"Since their application has been approved, I've spent some time researching TIFs in other counties, because I had never done a TIF before for tax purposes. I also tried to find out some different information and make sure that the face values I provided were correct."
Yokum said she attached some reports to what she had sent to the city and provided the commissioners with the same information. The reports included the final face values for real estate and personal property for 2023, which is what the TIF is based upon.
"The face value for the Class 2 real estate is $6,409,909, the based assessed value for Class 4 real estate is $45,832,570, and the base value for personal property, which is all Class 4, is $25,266,206," said Yokum. "These are the values I will use in figuring the increase in assessment every year when I do this certification."
When Kesling, who has spoken out repeatedly against the city's TIF program, asked Yokum if that was the rate that will be frozen for the county for the next 30 years, she replied yes.
"So next year when we do the assessed value on the TIF district, which is basically almost all the businesses in Elkins, and say it goes up to $60 million dollars from the $52 million this tear, the taxes that would come off that additional $8 million will now all go to the city," said Kesling. "And it will be like that for the next 30 years."
"It's money that will be taken away from the county, that we could have used for projects for the next 30 years," he said. "And this county commission had no say in what they did. It would be like us going down there (City Hall) and saying we want 5% of your 1% sales tax – just give it to us. They would be mad about it, too."
Kesling said when he attends the state's county commissioners conference in August, he plans on addressing the TIF issues in the state, and, hopefully, some changes will be made.
"This will be a topic I will push as a County Commissioners Association project for next year," he said. "It was changed at one point and the county commissioners used to have a say in it. But these lobbyists went and lobbied the Legislature to change the rule and make it easier for cities to do this. This commissioner will fight at our session in August to push for a change in this legislation, because it is wrong. Anyway you look at it, it's county money and it should go to the county."
Siler reiterated that the TIF project will diminish the county's plans.
"This money affects how much we can help people out," he said. "This TIF kind of cripples us on what we can and can't do."
In January, Elkins City Council voted to submit an application to the state to issue bonds in order to fund projects through TIF. The TIF application was approved by the state on April 7.
Prior to the approval, the Randolph County Commission announced that it would ask the Department of Economic Development to decline the city's TIF application and sent out an opposition letter to the organization.