Auditor’s office says it never recommended Fayette County levy cuts, county assessor says he was “shocked” by commission cuts

FAYETTEVILLE, WV (WOAY) – As Fayette County fire departments speak out against county commission cuts to voter-approved levies, the West Virginia state auditor’s office says it never recommended cutting or stopping any levies in Fayette County.

According to the Fayette County Firefighters’ Association, the commission cut the fire levy by 48%, the library levy by 10%, and the law levy by 23%.

Yesterday, Fayette County Commission President John Brenemen said that the commission made its decision partly in response to a letter from Fayette County assessor Eddie Young. Today, Young said he was shocked by the scale of the cuts.

Newswatch first reported cuts to the Fayette County fire, law, and library levies on-air on April 22. At the time, Brenemen told us that the county commission was slashing the levy in response to an auditor’s “recommendation.”

“When the budget office came and did our budget, or the auditor’s office came to look at our money for the county, they noticed that for the ending balance of March 31, that fire levy had $5,485,462.57 in it,” Brenemen said in a phone interview on April 22. “The auditor’s office recommended that we either stop or cut the levy so yearly we can adjust the levy rates. That’s done every March.”

In an interview following the commission meeting on Wednesday, he told Newswatch again that the cuts were made following input from the auditor’s office.

“They told us that we couldn’t have a glorified savings account, so we had to take a look at it to see what they were saying and how they said it. They educated Ruth Lanier, our county administrator, on what the levies can be used for,” Brenemen said. “At that point in time, we decided that we needed to reduce that levy, and we did. Not only the fire levy, we did all three levies. Library went down, the law levy went down and the fire levy went down.”

Today, the state auditor’s office told us it made no recommendations. Communications director Hayden Erwin provided a written statement to Newswatch this afternoon, confirming that the auditor’s office was in contact with the county commission but did not recommend cuts to the levies.

“The West Virginia State Auditor’s Office did not recommend that Fayette County reduce its levy rates. While our office provides budgetary guidance as required by law, any decisions regarding levy rates are made solely by the local governing body. I spoke with persons involved in correspondence regarding Fayette County Commission, they did not provide recommendations to cut or stop a levy,” Erwin said.

Fayette County assessor Eddie Young also clarified his involvement in the decision to cut the levies today.

Commissioner Brenemen told us Wednesday afternoon that the commission’s decision partly came from a letter sent to them by the county assessor.

“We are the second-highest excess taxpaying county in the state. I saw that in January, and I went to Eddie [Young]. Eddie agreed with me, and actually, he was bringing us a letter stating that, hey, is there anything that we can do to reduce the taxes for our citizens? So we had the same idea and then we were able to work,” he said.

Today, Young told us that he never recommended a 48 percent cut to the fire levy and was shocked when he learned about it.

He also provided his full letter to Newswatch. You can read it here:

“I wrote a letter to all the levying bodies back in February, asking if each body would reduce their regular levy and excess levy by a small portion. You get several small portions together to add up to a significant change for the taxpayers,” he said. “Nowhere in that letter did I say that we should reduce the fire department by over 40%. I wanted to clarify that for my fire department friends.”

Young said he felt scapegoated for the decision and was taken aback by the scale of the cuts.

“That’s absolutely not what I had in mind when I sent the letter to the county commission to lower their tax rates, it was not on my mind whatsoever to reduce the fire department by 48%,” he said. “That was a shock to me.”

“I thought that they were trying to take the heat off themselves and put it on me.”

All three levies were passed by Fayette County voters overwhelmingly last spring. The fire levy passed with 85% of the vote. The law levy passed with 80.5% of the vote. The library levy passed with 79% of the vote.

Brenemen said that voters also voted to allow the commission to make the cuts to the levy as necessary.

“The voters also approved at the time for us to make adjustments. Now, as the levy funds get spent down, we can go back and make that levy whole again,” he said.

On Wednesday, the commission did increase the overall fire budget by more than 80,000 dollars. It approved an additional $600,000 for truck payoffs. Brenemen told us that the commission could bring levy rates back up once the $5.4 million balance starts to be spent. For now though, he said that Fayette County citizens will get a tax break.

“With all of the bills increasing, you just didn’t see any other way that they were getting money back. Nothing’s going on federally. Nothing’s going on through the state. And we thought that we could help with this while still maintaining and growing our fire departments,” he said.

County firefighters worry that the tax cut could impact the quality of service provided by local fire departments. In an April 22 press release, the Fayette County Firefighters Association said the costs of some necessary equipment has gone up by more than 300% in the last decade.

“A reduction in funding will greatly impact the life safety and services provided by the Fayette County Fire Departments. The Fire Service has never requested an increase in funding,” the press release read.