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ELKINS -- The City of Elkins has released the estimated tax collections from the city's Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district for Fiscal Year 2025 and the predicted estimated collections for FY 2026.
Elkins City Clerk Sutton Stokes said the tax collection total from the TIF for FY 2025 is estimated to be a revenue of $98,751. The predicted collection total for FY 2026 is estimated to be a revenue of $148,742.
This comes after Elkins City Council approved a $6.5 million General Fund budget for FY 2026, which was a 5% increase from FY 2025. Stokes said the TIF is "not exactly" part of the General Fund budget, because it is its own fund, and neither TIF income nor expenditures of that income appear in the General Fund budget.
In January 2023, the City of Elkins submitted an application to the state to issue bonds in order to fund projects through Tax Increment Financing. The TIF application was approved in April 2023.
The TIF allows the city to collect any tax increases on the properties that are mapped in the TIF area for the next 30 years. The tax collections that go towards the TIF come from the City of Elkins, the Randolph County Commission, the Randolph County Board of Education and the State of West Virginia.
From the City of Elkins, the TIF collections from FY 2025 are estimated to be $26,713. For FY 2026, it is projected Elkins will contribute an estimated $40,235 in TIF tax collections.
For FY 2025, it is reported that tax collections from the Randolph County Commission are estimated to be $30,046. Collections for FY 2026 are projected to be an estimated $45,257.
With the TIF, the county is still able to continue to receive tax monies from the properties, but that amount is based on what the tax assessment was on July 1, 2022. Randolph County Commission President David Kesling and fellow Randolph County Commissioner Cris Siler sent an opposition letter to the state Department of Economic Development early in February 2023, but the city's TIF application was approved nonetheless.
It is estimated that $41,458 in tax collections came from the Randolph County Board of Education during FY 2025. In FY 2026, it is projected that collections from the BOE will equal an estimated $62,445.
Stokes told The Inter-Mountain that the amount the school system "loses" to the TIF is calculated by the state and is required to then be made up by the state school aid formula. However, Stokes said no one in the local area has access to the figures used in the state's calculation to help verify that the state is making up the difference.
"In speaking with Brad Smith (the BOE's director of finance and treasurer) at the Board office, I learned that the amount of the local share is calculated by the state and shared with the school system, so neither Brad nor I have any insight into how exactly it is calculated," Stokes said. "So, we are not in a position to verify, based on that single dollar amount provided by the state, exactly how it is being adjusted in light of the TIF."
Stokes added that the size of the local share fluctuates from year to year and is affected by more factors than just the TIF, such as changing enrollment numbers, changes in property tax valuations and proceeds outside the TIF District and more.
Stokes said state law requires that the state must "make the BOE whole" and that it would be "surprising" if they learned that the state was not doing so.
"The city has always understood and continues to believe that state law does require making the BOE whole for revenues 'lost' to the TIF," Stokes said. "If we can see figures indicating that this is not happening, I assume (city) council would be interested in considering options for addressing this."
It is reported that FY 2025 tax collections for the TIF from the State of West Virginia, separate from the state's obligation to the BOE, is estimated to be $534.
In FY 2026, it is projected that collections from the state are estimated to be $805.