The $2-a-week service fee had a head-on collision with voters Saturday.
In a blowout vote, Monongalia County residents defeated the ser vice fee — 10,566 votes against, to 2,488 for with 69 of 72 precincts in— forcing backers to go back to the drawing board to figure out a way to fix the county’s traffic woes.
Voter turnout topped 45 percent in some precincts, County Clerk Carye Blaney said. The overall turnout came in at about 26 percent. Voters opposed the measure by more than a 4-1 margin across the county.
Despite the resounding defeat, Monongalia County Commission President Bob Bell said he’s not going to stop working to take care of the county’s traffic problems. He said he thinks the commission will now have to go back to the state Legislature and federal representatives to see if they can find money for new road projects.
Bell said the service fee was the only tool the county had to take care of its own roads. But voters apparently thought they should not be paid for by county workers.
“This is the first time this has ever been tried in the state of West Virginia, and I’m sure other communities will be looking at us and saying, ‘Wow, we probably won’t do this in our community,’” Bell said. “I’m glad we gave it a try. I’m glad we gave the people a choice to make.”
The plan would have imposed a $2-a-week fee on every worker in Monongalia County. Officials estimated it would have brought in about $150 million during the next 30 years for road projects.
If the fee had passed, it would have been earmarked for 18 construction projects, including widening Beechurst Avenue, building an inner loop around the city and constructing the 705 Connector to Monongalia County 857.
County Commissioner John Pyles said the voters made a responsible choice.
“I think common sense prevailed,” Pyles said. “The County Commission spent
$85,000 on a special referendum to try and sell a product that was flawed from the beginning. And the people spoke loudly in opposition and made a very sound decision.”
Commissioner Asel Kennedy was one of the two commissioners who voted to send the service fee to voters. He said the county will now have to go back to the state Legislature to see if that body can pay for the roads the county needs.
“It was the only tool we had,” Kennedy said, echoing Bell. “We knew it would be a hard sell. It didn’t work.”
Steve LaCagnin, a member of Citizens for Monongalia County Roads, which promoted the fee , said he was disappointed. LaCagnin chaired an advisory committee that recommended the service fee to the County Commission and worked to promote the fee for the past six months.
LaCagnin said the service fee was the right thing for the community, but he respects the decision of the voters. He said he hopes the people who were against the service fee will find a way to deal with Monongalia County’s growing traffic problem.
“Really, it’s up to the people who were against it to now come up with a proposal that will do what it would have done or more,” LaCagnin said. “The problem’s not going to go away.”
Terry Nebel, chairman of the WVU Classified Staff Council, said he opposed the service fee because of the cost to classified staff at WVU. He said the county needs to find a way to deal with traffic, but this was the wrong way to do it.
“I like the intent of what this was trying to do, but I personally felt the proposed implementation of the fee structure was flawed,” Nebel said. “I do believe this is one of the major concerns staff had about this.”
Monty Warner, one of the developers of The Augusta Apartments and a major rental property owner, said the service fee gave voters a chance to control the county’s destiny. But by defeating the measure, residents “persist in the childish behavior of waiting for a paternalistic big government to descend from on high and clean up their messes.
“People will sit in traffic and burn $3-a-gallon gasoline from now until the cows come home and wait for someone to come fix their traffic problems,” Warner said. “That’s a recipe for disaster.”
Morgantown Deputy Mayor Don Spencer said he was disappointed in the vote.
He said the city is facing a lot of complications, and needs to find ways to fix them.
“We do need for the state to give us more options in the toolbox for local areas to use to solve problems that the federal and state governments have become powerless to address,” Spencer said. “... I’m especially appreciative of those persons who did their best to support the common good rather than just self-interest.”
