Wheeling Won’t Let Metropolitan Statistical Area Designation Go Without a Fight
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WHEELING -- There was a clear indication this week that officials in the city of Wheeling -- along with other affected metropolitan areas across the country -- would oppose a proposed effort to downgrade 144 communities from their current designation as metropolitan statistical areas.
A committee of representatives from federal statistical agencies recently recommended to the Office of Management and Budget that it double the threshold defining a metropolitan statistical area -- or MSA. That would increase the required size of the core city in any given MSA to a population of at least 100,000, twice the amount of the 50,000-person threshold for MSA designation that has been in place for 70 years.
The committee contends the proposed change would not be used to determine funding formulas and is being pursued strictly for statistical purposes.
Local governmental leaders aren't buying it.
"Obviously, even though the person spearheading this effort said that it would not have any effect on funding formulas, I would respectfully disagree that this would be the case," Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said Monday.
Herron noted that the city is allocated a number of federal grants and participates in other government-sponsored programs based on its population and its designation and a metropolitan area.
"We do receive annual CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funds, and well as HOME Investment Partnership Program funds, certain tax credits, funding for transportation and economic development efforts, just to name a few," he said. "I'm not sure what would happen to our MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) if such a change were to take place."
According to the proposal, cities with populations between 50,000 and 99,999 that lose their MSA designation would be designated "micropolitan" statistical areas. The current "micropolitan" threshold is used to designate urban clusters between 10,000 and 49,999 residents.
This significant downgrade of communities from the long-standing federal formula would raise a myriad of questions about the potential impact of such a move, officials indicated.
"There are so many different metropolitan areas in the country that would be affected by a change in the rules," Herron said. "I'm sure there will be a concerted effort to research all the potential impacts and ramifications, and to issue a response to this proposal."
According to a West Virginia University study, an MSA designation helps spur economic growth several ways. It may raise the marketing profile of the region, particularly with respect to national or multi-state site selection searches.
As Herron noted, MSAs are considered to be in a better position to draw down federal funds for transportation and economic development. The study said the designation may increase the amount and detail of economic information provided by federal and state statistical agencies in the region.
Although Wheeling is the "core" city in its MSA, its population is closer to 27,000. However, the urban cluster as currently defined in the Wheeling MSA encompasses the greater metropolitan areas which includes other areas, including the rest of Ohio County, Marshall County and all of Belmont County. Regardless of the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Census, which is still being tabulated, the overall population of the three combined counties would easily top 100,000, even if significant declines in population would be reported in each of these counties.
In 2017, the Wheeling MSA was estimated to represent an urban cluster of about 141,000 people, although it was reportedly declining at a rate of 4.5 percent. That drop was attributed to migration out of the area at a rate ranked eighth in the nation.
Yet in the wake of the area's oil and gas boom related to the hydraulic fracturing of Marcellus and Utica shale, the Wheeling MSA just a few years ago landed a national ranking as the fifth fastest growing economy in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The area's gross domestic product grew by 9.5 percent from 2013 to 2014.
Currently, there are 392 designated MSAs in the country, and if the recent proposal were to be implemented, more than a third of those urban clusters would be downgraded to "micropolitan" areas. In West Virginia, nearly all of the metropolitan areas in the state would lose their designation with the exception of Charleston.