WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS (WVDN) – On Monday morning, Oct. 24, White Sulphur Springs City Council met in a special session to vote on the second reading of a water and sewer rate hike. The increase was passed unanimously.
Council had passed the first reading of the increase — 28% for water and 20% for sewer — at its regular meeting on Oct. 11. A public hearing is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 14, at 6 p.m. before the regular 7 p.m. city council meeting where they will conduct a third and final reading and take a final vote on rate increase.
During the Oct. 11 meeting, Mayor Bruce Bowling had noted that with the rate hike, White Sulphur will “still have the lowest water rate in the state.”
In other business, Charlie Hammerman, president and CEO of the Disability Opportunity Fund, which holds the Schoolhouse Hotel under its umbrella of projects, appealed to council to exempt the nascent hotel from the city’s B&O tax.
Hammerman highlighted the investment that the Disability Opportunity Fund has made in the city of White Sulphur Springs, an amount that he said tops $20 million in improvements and renovations to the Schoolhouse Hotel, Main Street properties, wages and infrastructure, along with philanthropic donations to many public and private city entities.
The hotel itself, he said, will not gross $20 million this year, the threshold for B&O taxation in the city, but he said the hotel might gross that next year.
Council member Mark Gillespie, who attended the meeting remotely, spoke out against granting the exemption.
“At the rate we’re going now, we’re going to be bankrupt,” Gillespie said over the phone. “We don’t have money to do payroll, basically, other than month to month. And we’ve got to look at revenue somewhere.”
Council member Chris Hanna commented as well: “The challenge here is we didn’t do this B&O tax to hurt any small business. We were in a general fund crunch. The only businesses that have paid today have been two banks and Food Lion.
“In hindsight, if we went back to before we did it, we might have reconsidered even putting that B&O tax on. The challenge now is that’s generated about 5% of our general fund revenue. I think if we do away with it for one more person, we have to do away with it forever. And we can’t afford to do it right now,” Hanna said.
Ultimately, Hanna made a motion to exempt the Schoolhouse Hotel from the B&O tax for calendar year 2023-2023. Council member G.P. Parker seconded the motion.
Gillespie and Council member Audrey Van Buren voted against the exemption, and recorder Kathy Glover recused herself from the vote. Bowling, Hanna, Parker and Council member Mary Collins all voted in favor of the exemption.
