This CEO left coal miners penniless. Why did a West Virginia town give him a lucrative tax break to build a luxury hotel?

Milton, West Virginia, might be a small town, but it’s an oversized example of how too much police spending can be both a symptom and a cause of bad public policy.

Earlier this year, while reporting on a series of questionable arrests in this small rural community of roughly 2,500 people, we discovered the town had, quite literally, turned policing into a business. Ticket writing, fines, and court fees had tripled from $234,000 in 2012 to $600,000 in 2020, while police spending doubled to $1.1 million over the same period.

A deeper investigation into the finances of Milton has uncovered even more questionable priorities for the town and its local government. It turns out that a failed coal baron, Milton resident Jeff Hoops—perhaps best known for bankrupting the mining company Blackjewel, leaving hundreds of coal miners unpaid in the process—has been soaking the town for millions in tax breaks in a deal to build a luxury hotel that makes the town’s penchant for overpolicing look like a bad governance side gig.

The Earth-Shaking Collapse of Blackjewel

The previously undisclosed details of Hoops’ deal with Milton include the purchase of roughly 170 acres from the town for just $20 by a company that Hoops controls. This is land that Hoops later valued at $8.7 million in documents submitted to the West Virginia Economic Development Authority to obtain a lucrative tax break.

Add to this a $15 million tax incentive bestowed by Milton to finance construction costs for a major hotel slated to be built on the property, and what emerges is a remarkable story of how a man whom lawsuits claim is responsible for a spectacularly destructive bankruptcy has managed to use taxpayer dollars to fund his comeback as a luxury hotelier.

Full Article: [therealnews.com]