CHARLESTON – The town of Gilbert has filed a petition for a writ of mandamus with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to force the sheriff of Mingo County to properly collect hotel/motel taxes.
The town of Gilbert alleges the writ should be brought against Mingo Sheriff James M. Smith to collect hotel/motel costs for the entirety of the county so that the county commission can equally divide the collected monies between the four convention and visitor bureaus (CVB), the petition states.
"For the longest time the town of Gilbert and the town of Williamson were the only CVBs operating in Mingo County and they split hotel/motel tax money evenly," Steve New, the attorney for Gilbert, said in an interview. "Four CVBs were then formed within the last couple of years and it started Gilbert looking into how much they were bringing in versus how much they were getting back from the state."
New said it turned out that they were bringing in about 70 percent of the CVB money and only receiving 25 percent.
"They started peeling the onion back a little further and realized that out of 52 lodges, only seven or eight were having their hotel/motel tax collected by the sheriff of Mingo County," New said. "Mandamus is brought to force a government official to do what he or she should do and the sheriff of Mingo County is clearly not collecting any hotel/motel tax on the other side of the county, and that's why this writ of mandamus was brought."
Gilbert wants Smith to collect the required hotel/motel tax from all operating hotels and motels in Mingo County so that the revenues generated therefrom can be split equally between the four CVBs pursuant to the decision of the Mingo County Commission.
"Although the town of Gilbert's CVB is clearly being slighted in the amount rightfully due and owing to it for its tourism efforts and hotel/motel tax dollars generated; if the sheriff were collecting monies from all hotel/motels in the county, more money would be generated for the four CVBs and thus more money would be allocated to Gilbert," the petition states.
Gilbert is represented by New, Amanda J. Taylor and Kirk D. Lightner of The Law Office of Stephen P. New in Beckley.