Tax Revenues

charlestown@herald-mail.com CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - An economic development proposal that will be put before West Virginia voters in the Nov. 5 election was criticized Tuesday night by a Jefferson County Board of Education member who said he thinks it will hurt schools. The proposal, called Amendment 1, will give counties a way to attract new business by setting aside tax revenues to pay for incentives for the businesses, said Jane Peters, executive director of the Jefferson County Development Authority.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - A bill that could generate up to $3 million a year for new school construction in the Eastern Panhandle has been introduced in the state Legislature. [cont. from news page ] In counties that are experiencing growth in student population, Sen. Herb Snyder's bill would allow boards of education to keep new tax money that is generated every year through new development such as housing and shopping malls. State lawmakers have been considering such a proposal as a way to help Eastern Panhandle school districts offset growing student populations.

tarar@herald-mail.com The Washington County Commissioners on Tuesday approved by a narrow margin a $213.7 million budget that includes more than $70 million for the Board of Education. The County Commissioners voted 3-2 on the fiscal year 2004 spending plan, which goes into effect on July 1. Commissioners President Gregory I. Snook and Commissioners James F. Kercheval and Doris J. Nipps voted for the budget. Commissioners Vice President William J. Wivell and Commissioner John C. Munson voted against the measure.

Convention bureau asks for $50,000 By SCOTT BUTKI scottb@herald-mail.com The Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau has asked the Washington County Commissioners for an additional $50,000 from hotel-motel tax revenues to help defray costs for two fall events. The commissioners took no immediate action on the Tuesday request but promised an answer next week. The events are: -- A convention of The Society of Forty Men and Eight Horses, the American Legion's honor society, Sept.

Funding for school facilities and help for senior citizens must become priorities for Washington County, according to J. Herbert Hardin, who is running for county commissioner. "There are still some people who don't fully understand the needs of education and the needs of public safety in this community," said Hardin, a Democrat. A retired teacher and principal, Hardin, served on the Board of Education from 1998 to 2002. Since 2002, when he fell short in his bid to become a county commissioner, Hardin has been an active member of the North High stadium committee.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - A healthy national economy in 1999 buoyed Chambersburg's financial well-being, but one councilman remarked last week, "If the Dow Jones gets a chill, I believe the borough will get pneumonia. " The 1999 financial review the Borough Council received Wednesday was mostly positive, but Councilman William F. McLaughlin, chairman of the Finance Committee, said, "If there's a downturn (in the market) there will be a tax hike in Chambersburg that is significant. " "The borough has a lot of investments in stocks, mainly in pension funds.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A tax bill that caused controversy last year when local officials said it would cut nearly $1 million from school and county government budgets in the Eastern Panhandle is expected to be reintroduced in the next session of the Legislature. In last year's session, Senate Bill 29 was proposed to reduce the amount of taxes developers pay on building lots. When a developer divides a piece of land into building lots and makes required improvements such as roads, water and sewer service, the property is taxed at the commercial rate, Class 3. The Class 3 rate is twice as much as the Class 2 rate.

tammyb@herald-mail.com Although malpractice reform dominated the agenda of his audience Tuesday, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller managed to give the Hagerstown/Washington County Chamber of Commerce his views on a few other issues: · The budget - "We're coming out of a recession, and tax revenues are up," he said. "We're doing very well. " He noted that the projected deficit for fiscal year 2006 is down by about $500 million already, leaving a deficit of about $300 million.

Do you remember the lines of the old Bobby Bare song? “Home folks think I'm big in Detroit city, From the letters that I write they think I'm fine, But by day I make the cars, by night I make the bars, If only they could read between the lines, I want to go home, I want to go home.” A lot of people in Detroit must be singing those same words as they are leaving town. In the last decade, the population of the city has plummeted 25 percent.

HAGERSTOWN Funding for school facilities and help for senior citizens must become priorities for Washington County, according to J. Herbert Hardin, who is running for county commissioner. "There are still some people who don't fully understand the needs of education and the needs of public safety in this community," said Hardin, one of 24 commissioner candidates. A retired teacher and principal, Hardin, served on the Board of Education from 1998 to 2002. Since 2002, when he fell short in his bid to become a county commissioner, Hardin has been an active member of the North High stadium committee.

The price of gas in Maryland, following a tax hike in the General Assembly, is on target to increase by 4 cents in July, with a series of percentage hikes to follow, lasting through the year 2016 - not to mention a permanent tie to inflation. All told, gas likely will cost 20 more cents a gallon by the time the hikes are phased in over the next three years. It goes without saying that rural Marylanders who do the most driving will pay a higher percentage of the new tax, at least on a per-capita basis.

Do you remember the lines of the old Bobby Bare song? “Home folks think I'm big in Detroit city, From the letters that I write they think I'm fine, But by day I make the cars, by night I make the bars, If only they could read between the lines, I want to go home, I want to go home.” A lot of people in Detroit must be singing those same words as they are leaving town. In the last decade, the population of the city has plummeted 25 percent.

It might take about $45 million to turn a large tract near Hagerstown into a technology business park, including the cost of building roads and utilities to support it, Washington County Public Works Director Joseph Kroboth III said Friday. But the payoff, over time, is expected to be large, Kroboth said. Besides a business park generating local industry and high-paying jobs, he said the project would create new tax revenue - possibly covering the government investment within 10 years.

$20,000 for the Salute to Independence event $15,000 to The Salvation Army for construction of a new community recreation area $10,500 to Bergman Eye Center as an incentive for a new building for creation of jobs $10,000 to Capital Women's Care as an incentive for a new building and expansion $5,000 to sponsor a Take Flight II hot air balloon sculpture to benefit the Barbara Ingram School for the Arts $3,115 to cover Sheriff's...

Hagerstown and its environs have from time to time been accused, with varying degrees of validity, of having a shadow government that forms policy and makes decisions behind the scenes, and then tells local elected boards what to do. Community movers and shakers understandably take great offense at this theory, but if you're battling a stereotype, it doesn't help to organize a secret meeting at Fountain Head Country Club. It was there that Del. John Donoghue, with the help of former Del. Bruce Poole, met with community leaders both elected and nonelected to talk strategy over the upcoming gasoline-tax debate, a possible relocation of the school system's central offices and who knows what else.

GREENCASTLE, Pa. -- The Greencastle-Antrim School Board has capped real estate tax increases for the 2010 school year, forcing the district to balance its budget this June through careful expenditure control. In a unanimous vote Thursday, the board adopted a resolution that caps real estate taxes for the coming school year at the Act 1 limit, which for Greencastle is 3.2 mills. Each school district much choose whether it will set the cap or not before January of each year, Business Manager Richard Lipella said.

CHARLES TOWN, W.VA. - Tax revenue in Jefferson County was up by $11 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year compared to the previous year, Jefferson County Sheriff Everett "Ed" Boober told the Jefferson County Commission Thursday. Taxes collected on real estate and personal property such as automobiles totaled a little more than $52 million compared to the $41.1 million taken in during the 2006-07 fiscal year, Boober said. The increase can be attributed to increasing tax bills as the values of homes have risen over the years, as well as new construction in the county, according to Boober and Commissioner Dale Manuel.

CHARLES TOWN, W.VA. -- Tax revenue in Jefferson County was up by $11 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year compared to the previous year, Jefferson County Sheriff Everett "Ed" Boober told the Jefferson County Commission Thursday. Taxes collected on real estate and personal property such as automobiles totaled a little more than $52 million compared to the $41.1 million taken in during the 2006-07 fiscal year, Boober said. The increase can be attributed to increasing tax bills as the values of homes have risen over the years, as well as new construction in the county, according to Boober and Commissioner Dale Manuel.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- Part of a tax on hotel and motel revenues in Washington County will be distributed to Hagerstown and the county's eight towns based on the population of those municipalities. The Washington County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a distribution formula for the tax, resolving a long-standing complaint from some municipal officials who have said the county should give out more of the money. Under the formula approved Tuesday, half of the tax revenue still will go to the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- Washington County would distribute $300,000 in hotel tax revenue to its municipalities next fiscal year under a proposed change to the county's hotel tax fund. But how that money would be divided, and whether all of the county's nine municipalities would benefit, still is to be determined. After debating several options Tuesday, the Washington County Commissioners agreed to ask local mayors and councils how they think the money should be distributed. The county commissioners announced a plan to change the fund's distribution Tuesday during the 2008 State of the County address, calling it a step forward in an ongoing disagreement between county and city officials on the issue of revenue sharing.