By: Lydia Crawley, The Parsons Advocate
It seems everyone in Tucker County is talking about West Virginia House Bill 2014, a controversial Bill that seeks to bring data centers to West Virginia. Town of Davis Mayor Al Tomson is no exception. Tomson discussed the Bill during Mayor Comments during the April 9th session of the Davis Town Council.
“House Bill 2014 with or without the amendment will pass, I have no doubt,” Tomson said. “They’re ramming it through and sometime before midnight (Saturday) I will know its fate and I will share that Sunday at the public meeting.”
Tomson said that no local input has been made concerning HB 2014 or the filing of an Air Quality Permit Application at the State level for a power plant that would power a data center slated to be built between Davis and Thomas next to the Tucker County Landfill. The project only recently came to the attention of the public and more importantly public officials who became aware of it a week before the Town Council meeting.
“Nobody locally has been contacted about any of this. About the proposed power plant or about House Bill 2014,” Tomson said. “And myself and every other local leader is very upset. I think this was unconscionable. I think it was reckless. And I think it shows the lack of concern that the State has for people living in various local areas.”
Tomson explained the Bill as an “unconscionable degree of government overreach” that “usurped” the power of local authorities. Under HB 2014 local governments would have no say when it comes to data centers or where they could or could not be located, nor would they be entitled to any tax revenue generated from them, including property taxes, as it would all go to the State.
“House Bill 2014, and I will try to summarize and do it some justice, its an unconscionable degree of government overreach by the State of West Virginia,” Tomson said. “They are usurping all local authority from municipalities and the County and I mean all.”
Tomson said that local authorities have no control over any aspect when it comes to data centers under the measure. Even such routine powers such as code enforcement and permitting is taken from locals under the measure, Tomson said.
“You can’t do zoning, you can’t do an ordinance, you can’t do a code enforcement, you can’t do any inspections, you can’t do any permits,” Tomson said. “They even have a section on horticulture which means we can’t even ask them to plant a tree. So that’s how onerous the restrictions are in that particular piece of legislation.”
Tomson said that a Senate Committee added an amendment that would give county governments 30% of the appreciated property tax revenue to try to appease the angry local governments after representative from many counties arrived in Charleston to air their grievances over the measure.
“This is big news, it affects many counties, this House Bill 2014 and the reason the amendment was put in was because many county officials were in Charleston yesterday at that subcommittee and they were really angry and complaining,” Tomson said. “And I think they heard at least the opinions of the counties to say that you can’t give us the issues, take away total authority from us and take all the money, too. You have to give us something. So they threw them a bone and said you can have 30% of the appreciative value of property tax, maybe, if it stays in.”
Tomson said under the initial House version of the Bill, all tax revenue went to the State. This version passed the House with no amendments or changes. Tomson said the Bill was similar in theory to tax incremental financing.
“I’m going to talk first about how the legislation was originally crafted,” Tomson said. “Its similar to tax increment financing or TIF. You look at the property value today before you do anything to it. That land is zoned as timber so there is almost no tax revenue collected from that property because of the zoning that it has and that would establish the value or the money that would go to the county.”
Under the initial House version of the measure, anything after July first would go to the State, Tomson said.
“After 1 July, anything that gets built, doesn’t count in the county’s assessment,” Tomson said. “Everything built after 1 July, which could be a billion dollars worth of building, would be assessed and taxed for property tax and all the money would go to the State.”
Tomson laid out how the money would be appropriated under the original House bill.
“That money would go and there would be a portion that, this is the original write up of the Bill, 60% of that money would go to reducing the State Income Tax, 15% of it would go to Economic Development Closing and Promotion Fund, 15% would go to the Electric Grid Stabilization and Security Fund and 10% would go in the State’s General Fund,” Tomson said. “So 100% of that appreciative value would go to the State. You notice I didn’t say county at all in any of that.”
The Bill passed the House with no amendments where it went to the Senate. A Senate Committee attached an amendment giving counties 30% of tax revenue collected, according to Tomson. However, Tomson did not have specifics on how the remaining 70% of the money would be divided at the State level under the Senate proposal.
“The Bill went from the House, where it passed, to the Senate,” Tomson said. “Yesterday, it went to Committee..and they did an amendment and they said that 30% of the money would now go to the county. So that’s the amendment to the original Bill. That changes the percentages that I just rounded off, but I don’t have the changes.”
The Bill has until midnight on Saturday, April 12th to pass prior to the end of the State’s legislative session to become law.
“It must pass, if it is going to pass, by midnight Saturday because that is when the legislative session ends,” Tomson said.
Tomson encouraged those in attendance at the meeting to contact their legislators regarding the issue, especially Senate President Randy Smith who represents Tucker County.
“I would encourage anybody either that is concerned about this to contact basically their legislature people,” Tomson said. “And I think probably the most important person to contact is the President of the Senate Randy Smith. And I say that for two reasons, he’s the President of the Senate, but also his jurisdiction is Tucker County, as well as some other Counties. So he should be very concerned.”
