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Publication: The Dominion Post
Release Date: 02/04/08
Contact: J. Miles Layton
While Danny Beck was enjoying the Super Bowl at Archie’s on Sunday, he was quick to note his vote against the service fee that failed by a 4 to 1 margin.
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.
“I thought it wasn’t fair because the same person who makes minimum wage has to pay the same as someone making $500 a week,” said Beck, leaning back in his chair as he talked about the issue. “A lot of people who are on the road don’t work, so how are you going to take that $2 from them?”
The measure was crushed with 2,542 votes in favor and 11,048 votes against, according to the unofficial results Monongalia County Clerk’s office. The no votes topped the yes votes in all of the county’s 72 precincts.
County clerk Carye Blaney said about 27 percent of the county’s registered voters participated in this special referendum. Any provisional ballots will be reviewed by the county commission this week when it sits as a canvassing board before the total becomes official.
Tom Stockdale, of Morgantown, sat at a table surrounded by friends who chastised him for voting in favor of the service fee on Saturday.
“I was sure it was going to pass because of all the PR [public relations] was good,” he said. “We needed to get rid of the congestion and the hour-long traffic jams. The state and federal governments don’t have the money. We needed to do this ourselves.”
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.
Sitting across the table from Stockdale was Mike Cupp, of Morgantown. As Stockdale was talking, Cupp shook his head and smiled.
“I didn’t vote it,” Cupp said. “I think WVU and the developers need to pay for it.”
The Committee for Fair Traffic Solutions actively campaigned against the fee .
“This was just a small group of people who felt strongly about this issue,” said Dave Lemley, a member of committee.
Charles Sell, a member of the committee, said he visited many senior citizen centers in the county to talk about the fee .
“I’ve spoken to more than a hundred people at one luncheon — they were extremely angry about this,” he said. “I got the same reaction from the people at the Blacksville Senior Center. I can honestly say that I didn’t encounter one single person who was for the service fee .”
Morgantown Mayor Ron Justice took the service fee ’s defeat in stride.
“I don’t think we could have done anything different,” he said. “People certainly voted with their pocketbook. There were so many different issues and reasons that people came out to vote against it — such as lower-income voters paying the same amount as others to those who didn’t agree with the fee . This process gave people a choice. It wasn’t a government body saying this is going to happen, but the voters. This is a mandate that will be respected by leaders in the community. We hope for other ways to accomplish this.”
Sell said one reason for the failure is money.
“The seniors concluded that their property taxes are already way too high and the county commission should have reduced the tax rates, but instead the commission was asking people to increase their financial burden. Who would entrust $150 million more to people who are managing the current county budget in that fashion?”
Retired seniors would not have paid the fee , according to the service fee order drawn up by the commission. Only workers drawing paychecks in Monongalia County would have paid the fee .
Monongalia County Commissioner Asel Kennedy said the commission wouldn’t have done anything different.
“Everything now is just a second guess,” he said. “I think to some extent of the inflexibility on the low income [voters] was probably the biggest factor in this special election. Our job as a commission was to try and get it on the ballot. The governor was excited about it. A lot of people worked hard to get this out there, but I guess it was something that people didn’t want.”
Lemley said the fee didn’t make sense to many people.
“The fee was just wrong,” he said. “They didn’t look for any other sources of revenue to fund these projects. They went straight for the workers’ pockets.”
Steve LaCagnin, chairman of the county’s Service Fee Advisory Board, said area groups and individuals committed $62,100 to Citizens for Monongalia County Roads, the group dedicated to promoting the service fee proposal.
Lemley said the advertising campaign contributed to the fee ’s defeat.
“Some were offended by the advertising,” he said. “Some thought it was funny that the ‘pro-side’ thought it would sway people to vote for this. Others thought it was just designed to confuse people and play on their emotions.”
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