Commissioners Make Changes to Hotel Occupancy Tax Distributions

At their January 6, 2026 meeting, the Pocahontas County Commissioners tackled what has been a very controversial subject in recent years -their distribution of Hotel Occupancy Tax revenues.

But before doing so, they heard presentations from 4 of the groups that receive these distributions.

1. Hallie Herald, the Director of the Pocahontas County Libraries and Visitor Information Centers, made a presentation that talked about all the accomplishments of the libraries over the past year. She said the five branches of the library had a total of 34,518 people visit them this past year, with 22,878 items checked out, plus 7,308 digital borrows. 13,043 people used the libraries computers and WIFI and conducted 764 programs which had 8,383 attendees, which quadrupled other WV Counties with similar population size. Herald said that in a Charleston Gazette article, Paula Kaufman said “special mention goes to the Pocahontas County Library system. One of our most rural, they continue to punch above their weight.” Herald also presented financial information showing that while they still need the annual Hotel Occupancy Tax money -($242,940.44 last year) from the commission, they are working to eventually build up their investments to where in a number of years from now, the interest from their investment will replace that.
2. J. Gudmundson presented a report for Preserving Pocahontas to the commissioners. She said their mission is to identify, curate and store historical photographs and recordings, transferring them to a digital archive and make them available on-line. She said their website had 2,895,327 visitors in 2025. She said their Hotel Occupancy Tax serves them well and would like the same amount in the future.
3. Peggy Owens of the Pocahontas County Art Council talked about their efforts last year to work with Durbin, and they also continued their classes in clay, oil painting and sketching at the Little Yellow House and with Nature’s Classroom as well as other groups and with other organizations.
4. Alyssa Vickers, the Director of the Pocahontas County Parks and Recreation also made a presentation in which she talked about last year’s capital improvements at Stillwell Park, the new Hillsboro Park and replacing exercise equipment at the Wellness Center. She said they cut one full-time employee position to help meet their budget, and that Hotel Occupancy Tax makes up 82% of their budget (about $251,000,) with 68.2% of their budget being spent on payroll.

The commissioners then held a long discussion about their Hotel Occupancy Tax contributions in 2026. Commission President John Rebinski proposed not changing any of the caps on the amounts organizations receive, but reducing the libraries percentage to 28% from 30% and increasing the Parks and Recreation’s percentage to 33% from 31%. After discussing this, the commissioners decided instead to leave all these at last year’s rates except to give Parks and Recreation the 33% without reducing any other organizations percentage. They came up with the extra 2% for Parks and Recreation by reducing the percentage they had been putting into the commission’s Hotel Occupancy Fund from 5% to 3% plus any money above the caps.

They also kept all the fixed amounts the same, but removed the $225,000 going to the Ambulance Fund, which will become part of their FY 26-27 Budget.

So, the final amounts approved for 2026 are:

Fixed funds:

• 50% to the Convention and Visitors Bureau (mandated by state law.)
• PMH -$75,000;
• County Emergency Medical Services -$75,000;
• County Fire Board -$120,000;
• County Bricks and Mortars Fund (for courthouse maintenance and repairs) -$35,000;

The following organizations then receive these percentage of the remaining revenues:

• 5% to Preserving Pocahontas, with a cap of $21,000;
• 5% to the Arts Council, with a cap of $28,000;
• 6% to Historic Landmarks Commission, with a cap of $50,000;
• 22% to Dramas, Fairs and Festivals, with a cap of $175,000;
• 33% to Parks and Recreation, with a cap of $260,000;
• 30% to Libraries and Visitor Information Centers, with a cap of $255,000;
• 3% plus any excess above the other caps to the commission’s “Hotel Occupancy Fund.”

They scheduled 5 dates for the 2026 Board of Review and Equalization hearings:

1. Friday, January 30, 2026 at 10 a.m.
2. Tuesday, February 3, 2026 at 10 am
3. Monday, February 9, 2026 at 10 a.m.
4. Friday, February 13^th at 10 am
5. Tuesday, February 17^th at 5:45 pm.

The commissioners also approved: the appointment of Joanna Cordell to the Pocahontas County Libraries and Visitor Information Centers and approved the state holiday list.