Council adopts budget revisions: sales-tax reconciliation, pension deposits, fire capital transfers and smaller reimbursements

The Morgantown City Council on Tuesday adopted a set of budget amendments covering municipal sales-and-use-tax reconciliations, pension deposits, capital transfers for the fire department, settlement receipts and reimbursements.

John Ferguson, finance director, presented the package, describing several housekeeping items and policy-directed allocations. The city reconciled its municipal sales-and-use-tax receipts for fiscal 2025 and reported actual revenue of $10,090,694.51 versus an original budgeted amount of $9,600,000, an increase of roughly $490,695. Ferguson said the city distributed the statutory allocations (25% to Park/Bue Park, 25% to pension liability reduction split between police and fire, 25% to capital escrow, 25% to the general fund) and that the additional receipts were allocated to cover near-term obligations and contingency lines.

Ferguson described immediate pension deposits carried out under the council’s recently adopted compromise plan: each police and fire pension fund received $647,943.38 in the third and fourth quarter distributions; those deposits were placed into investment accounts the following day, Ferguson said, to begin earning returns and reduce the city’s amortized unfunded liability.

The council also approved moving available operating budget from the fire department into its capital escrow fund to cover electronic door locks at three fire stations. Ferguson said the transfer—drawn from multiple surplus line items in the fire operating budget—totaled $44,003.61 and would be used to install a consistent, IT-serviceable door-lock system across stations.

Other items in the revision included receipt and reallocation of a $25,000 settlement payment from national litigation involving the drug Lipitor; Ferguson said that amount will be directed to the city’s life-and-health fund to offset past prescription spend. The city also recorded asbestos-sampling reimbursements totaling $7,181 from the state program and a $745 third-party reimbursement, and accounted for a prior-year reimbursement from MUB related to the Coburn Creek pedestrian bridge project.

Council approved the general-fund and capital-escrow revisions and the municipal sales-tax reconciliation on a 7-0 roll call. Ferguson and councilors described the changes as primarily timing and accounting reconciliations plus targeted transfers to capital projects and pension accounts.

Councilors asked whether transfers would leave operating accounts short; Ferguson said he had reviewed projections and did not expect budget shortfalls through year end.