Capito: 2025 earmarks gone with spending bill
Mar. 15—MORGANTOWN — If your community is expecting big money from Washington for your favorite project, it may be time to move on.
There's a good chance it's not coming.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito's office confirmed to The Dominion Post on Friday that the congressionally directed spending program is cancelled for fiscal year 2025 if the continuing resolution before the The U.S. Senate is ultimately passed.
The program represents hundreds of millions of dollars for West Virginia.
"You are correct that the Continuing Resolution that the Senate is currently considering on the floor does not include any Fiscal Year 2025 Congressionally Directed Spending projects, " Capito Communications Director Kelley Moore explained. "Senator Capito and members of our staff have conveyed this to West Virginians."
That's not what the city of Morgantown says.
"As of right now, the City of Morgantown has not received any form of official correspondence from state or federal authorities regarding the status of state and /or federal grants, " Morgantown Communications Specialist Hollie Gregory told The Dominion Post one day earlier.
According to the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations, the 2025 earmarks represent nearly $35 million for WVU.
Also included is $26, 072, 000 for the Morgantown Industrial Park Access Road Project, which The Dominion Post understood to mean the bridge project across the Monongahela River.
When asked, the state said no.
"Triton Construction was awarded a contract for $59, 764, 000 for the project in August 2024, and the project is currently under construction. The project is part of WVDOH's Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) and is being funded without the intention of relying on any federal "earmarks, " WVDOT Public Relations Specialist Rusty Marks said.
Other "congressionally directed spending " previously approved for 2025 includes $1.5 million for a Morgantown Police Department fleet update and $1.3 million for WVU law enforcement.
Other items listed include a total of $12.25 million for Mon Health Medical Center ; $1.5 million for the Morgantown Historic Streetscape Revitalization and $500, 000 for both the Brookhaven Road improvement project and Cheat River Rail-Trail construction.
As of right now, it also seems the cuts include $2 million for the revitalization of lower Greenmont.
The city confirmed the earmark had been approved last fall. It hoped to have the funds in hand by this spring in order to continue efforts to acquire land, combat blight, demolish dilapidated structures and, potentially, help construct accessible housing in a largely run-down portion of Morgantown's oldest neighborhood.
During its meeting earlier this week, members of the Morgantown Land Reuse & Preservation Agency said they have serious concerns about whether that money will actually materialize.
"It doesn't seem good right now, " LRPA President Jessica McDonaled said.
In response, the body is looking to start engaging the private sector.
The agency has already assembled a number of properties in lower Greenmont, particularly along Pennsylvania Avenue. The goal is to package the properties and make an attractive offer to a developer of attainable housing.
The body asked Development Services Director Rickie Yeager to begin working on a request for proposals.
Michael Mills said the group has a vision for what it wants to see in lower Greenmont, but no real way to finance the transformation.
At the very least, he continued, the agency should begin communicating the potential of lower Greenmont to potential investors.
"Some of that discussion was relying on federal money, which I don't think we're going to see. So I think you've got to marry the private money with what we've got in hand, " he said, later adding, "I think you say 'This is our vision. This is our opportunity. Who wants to play ?"
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