CHARLESTON, W.Va. –Charleston City Council voted Monday night to amend the municipal code regarding exemptions to the municipal business and occupation tax.

The B&O Tax is imposed on any person engaging in or continuing business within the City of Charleston. The updated code now exempts businesses with less than $2,500 in annual gross income, as well as the sale of new automobiles.

Council member Jeanine Faegre said that during the Finance Committee meeting, they were asked how much revenue would be lost. She explained that the city would lose approximately $3,000 from the B&O tax on businesses, with an additional but unspecified loss from the exemption on the sale of new automobiles.

Faegre said that, to her understanding, the change is being made to comply with state code.

“This amendment is only due to the fact that we have to comply with the state, and I even asked my smart colleague Mr. Pepper if I understood that correctly during the meeting and he said yes,” she said.

Finance Chair Joseph Jenkins agreed, telling the council exactly what legislation had been passed over the years that prompted the amendment.

“The state had passed bills in the past year, the first one to phase out the B&O tax on the sale of new automobiles which will be phased out in this fiscal year completely and also recently that less than 25 hundred dollars in annual gross income would not be subject to the B&O tax,” Jenkins said.

The bill did not pass unanimously. Council member Joe Solomon said he supported the exemption for small businesses but could not vote in favor because of the exemption for automobile sales.

“I don’t want to condone the stripping of B&O taxes among automobile sales within city limits,” Solomon said.

Also, during the meeting, the council approved an additional $800,000 in funding for the city’s CARE team.

CARE, the Coordinated Addiction Response Effort, supports overdose victims and others struggling with drug addiction. Since its creation, CARE has helped place 2,000 individuals into custody

The money comes from the city’s opioid settlement funds.

Jenkins said the funding will help ensure the CARE team can continue its operations.

“With the ending of some of the federal grant funding that the CARE office was using for its operations, your finance committee recommends the transfer of this amount from the opioid settlement fund to continue the operations for the CARE office,” he said