$1 weekly fee for working inside city begins

Charleston Gazette ^ | 01/01/04 | Mandy Rorrer

[Holly_P]

Extra $3 million per year is to hire more police, make street, sidewalk repairs

Charleston’s city service fee goes into effect today. People who work within the city this week will have the $1 fee withheld from their paychecks, said City Manager David Molgaard.

Employers located in Charleston are responsible to withhold $1 per week, or $52 per year, from employee paychecks. People who are paid twice a month will have $2.16 withheld, and people paid on a monthly basis will see $4.33 taken from each paycheck.

If a Charleston business decides not to withhold the fee, the city could file a lawsuit against the employer, Molgaard said. The city files liens against people delinquent on their taxes and fees, said City Collector Ken Guthrie. The collector’s office also would charge the business an 8 percent annual interest fee, and another 5 percent penalty that would increase by 2 percent each month the money is overdue.

Charleston also goes after businesses that don’t pay business and occupation taxes, the city’s largest source of revenue. “We don’t have a lot of people who don’t pay B&O, but more than I think there should be,” Guthrie said.

Part-time and full-time employees have to pay the service fee. Employees of nonprofit groups and government agencies also fall under the regulations. Businesses will submit the fee to the city four times a year, the same way Charleston collects B&O taxes. Charleston will receive the first payment in April.

Molgaard said he is not aware that anyone has challenged Charleston’s fee in court. “The service fee’s regulations include an appeals process for people who feel they are not supposed to pay the fee,” he said.

The city collector’s office mailed copies of the service fee regulations to Charleston businesses about a month ago. Employers’ most common question has been whether a worker must pay the fee if the business’ office is in Charleston, but the worker is assigned to a location outside the city limits. “It doesn’t matter where payroll is, it depends on where the employee reports to work,” Guthrie said.

Jay Marino, owner of Al Marino Inc. contracting company, said his employees’ paychecks could change every week as they work on different construction jobs around the state. “The tracking might be difficult,” Marino said. “We’ll have to do it on a job-per-job basis.”

Al Marino Inc. has 40 employees that work throughout West Virginia, but payroll is handled through the Charleston office. Marino’s accountants already track employees and adjust paychecks for the different business and occupation taxes accessed in Beckley, Huntington and Charleston.

“It’s not going to affect us much, because we have an automated system,” Marino said. “I know Charleston needs more revenue ... I just hate to see more money come out of employees’ payroll.”

Couriers for Bob Corey’s Jack Rabbit delivery service travel all over the state, but deliveries originate from the Corey brothers’ East End office. “The fee’s going to be handled straight up, from every employee,” Bob Corey said.

Guthrie expects his office will set up 8,000 accounts to collect the service fee, more than the 7,500 B&O accounts. Charleston won’t consider hiring more employees to handle the fee’s collection before April, Molgaard said.

The City Council approved the service fee in September. The city expects to collect about $3 million per year from Charleston’s 55,000 employees. The money is to be used to hire more police officers and repair city streets and sidewalks.

Police Chief Jerry Pauley said his department would hire 15 officers when the new budget starts in July 2004, and another 15 officers the following year.

City engineers have a long list of street repairs that could be paid for through the service fee, Molgaard said. Three rounds of floods and the fact that the city did not pave any roads last year added to that list, he said.

To contact staff writer Mandy Rorrer, use e-mail or call 348-5163.

[A2J]

This is a joke, right?

[CounterCounterCulture]

$1 fee TAX

[Rebelbase]

No joke at all. Municipalities have been trying for years to find a way to tax people who use city services but live outside the city or live in the city and rent instead of own.

In this case it looks like the ones getting the double whammy will be Charleston homeowners.

[gitmo]

How do you determine who works in the city? Does a trucker driving through work there? Does a plumber whose office is outside the city limits work there if he repairs pipes inside the city? What about someone whose office is in Charleston, but spends his time on the road outside Charleston?

Of course, the answer is "We want everyone's money."

[Ethyl]

Charleston where? South Carolina? West Virginia? etc.

[Holly_P]

West Virginia - but it's coming to a city near you soon.

[pittsburgh gop guy]

coming to Pittsburgh, PA REAL SOON!

[LibKill]

Erm, how to say this?

THIS STINKS!

Yep, that's it.

[JRios1968]

As usual, an "enlightened" liberal mayor, decides that the best way to bring more people to his/her fair town is to make it MORE expensive to live there.

Makes you wonder who is dumber, the "enlightened" mayor, or the residents who continue allowing this to happen.

[NYFriend]

An excise tax on employment? A toll would make more sense, but this is actually stupid because the taxes on businesses, (ie property tax) pay for the services the employees use. In NYC, they had been justifying the so-called commuter tax (a city income tax) as fair to compensate the city for services it provides to workers while in the city. It's disingenuous.

[Az Joe]

Tax 'em all! Let Big Brother sort 'em out!

[Vesuvian]

I hate the smell of incrementalism in the morning...it smells like defeat.

As someone who works in NYC but lives on LI I'm waiting for this shoe to drop on me.

[CaptRon]

No joke at all. Municipalities have been trying for years to find a way to tax people who use city services but live outside the city

For a brief period I commuted into Manhattan. I paid for the bus, the subway and the train. I cannot think of one service that I used that I didn't subsidize myself.

[Rebelbase]

"I cannot think of one service that I used that I didn't subsidize myself."

Water, sewer, refuse, police, fire, EMT, etc.....not that I'm defending it, but that is their justification.

[Smocker]

Just another example of the socialist state of West Virginia clamping down on anything that might look like free enterprise.

[justrepublican]

Congratulations West Virgina, you have just figured out how to tax AIR.

[George from New England]

This is like a crooked charity. Or like toll booth on highways.

The amount of overhead required in city staff, employees and benefits to collect the tax will take the bulk of what is collected.

Nothing more than another government work program for those involved in collecting.

[Jack Black]

Portland, OR has a payroll tax. It's a lot higher that this too. I think it is 1.5% of payroll or something. And of course for people who live in Vancouver, WA and work in Portland they are forced to pay Oregon state income tax which is at about 10% now.

A lot of offices are closing down town, that's a no brainer. A lot of Oregon business is moving, as are rich people. These schemes eventually backfire, you can't force people to live and pay taxes somewhere (at least not yet) so when a city goes nutty on it people just up and leave.

[George from New England]

Not to different than our utility bills here in CT.

There must be EIGHT or more lines of fees and taxes each month. No bill payer can keep track of who gets what and no utility can explain them all. Just pay the bill and don't question it.

In Charleston the government revenue comes from multiple sources, make it so complicated that no worker can keep track of the deductions on his/her paycheck. Just say "Yes big brother" and accept your 20% to take home.