FAYETTEVILLE, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Members of the Fayette County Commission assembled on Tuesday for an Emergency Session meeting at which the issue of Excess Levy rates was revisited.
The session acted as a continuation of last week’s Regular Session meeting, at which levy rates for Fayette County fire services were discussed at length. Tuesday’s session saw broader discussion of levy funds in general, with commission members emphasizing that the funds are intended to be a tool for balancing the county budget and making public services available, not for funding of privately operated establishments or for arbitrary purposes.
Commission President, Tom Louisos proposed early on that the commission approve the amounts which had previously been approved for the 2019-2024 levy, which would see $1,931,460 allocated to fire services, $593,000 allocated to public library services, and $1,300,124 allocated for law enforcement services.
However, this motion would be contingent on the transfer of levy funding for a minimum of six and a maximum of ten Fayette County Deputies from Excess Levy funds to the General County fund.
Commissioner Taylor, during Friday’s session, expressed concern with regard to the number of deputies on the levy, which was said to have been over twenty. The transfer of this funding would open up $513,000 in levy rates, an amount which could then be utilized by law enforcement. Moving forward, the county hopes to continue to move deputies from the excess levy onto the county general account as revenue increases.
“Now that we have implemented the tax reduction clause into the levy order, we can adjust the excess levy rate every fiscal year if there is a surplus of funds that will subsidize the excess levy expenses,” Commission President, Tom Louisos tells LOOTPRESS, noting the added benefit of securing deputy employment through this practice. “My plan is to continue moving Fayette County forward with development, conservative spending, and improving public services. I believe the commission will evaluate the levy expenditures through the next four years and acti accordingly in the next levy cycle.”
Additionally, Louisos revealed plans to utilize a recreational economic development project and grant consultant, in conjunction with the newly formed LRA, for the development and redevelopment of abandoned and dilapidated properties throughout Fayette County.
“This will help revitalize all corners of Fayette County,” he says. “This will also help bring economic development and create jobs, which in turn, will increase municipal and county revenues to further improve public services and allow the commission to slowly reduce the excess levy tax rate.
Louisos emphasized the significance of public services as a key focus in matters pertaining to county funding, denouncing spending practices in which surplus funding is utilized for special interest endeavors.
“I’ve spent the last five years working on reversing the last fifty years of special interest squandering on unproductive projects and other frivolous spending just because there is a surplus of county funds,” he says. “I have fought to implement conservative spending practices that have led Fayette County to have the healthiest budget it has ever had. The past five years of conservative spending has not hindered public services in any way and it will not in the future.”
