H. B. 2359
(By Delegate Warner)
[Introduced January 22, 1999; referred to the
Committee on Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact sections one and four, article
three-a, chapter seventeen of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating
to the type of funding approved for constructing industrial
road sites and providing for an increase in the amount of
funding which may be allocated per county per fiscal year.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections one and four, article three-a, chapter
seventeen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 3A. INDUSTRIAL ACCESS ROAD FUND.
§17-3A-1. Industrial access road fund created; construction
guarantees by municipalities and counties.
(a) Any other provision of this code notwithstanding, there is hereby created in the state treasury the "industrial access
road fund", hereinafter referred to as "the fund". There shall
be deposited into the fund three fourths of one percent of all
state tax collections which are otherwise specifically dedicated
by the provisions of this code to the state road fund or such
percentage of those tax collections that will produce three
million dollars for each fiscal year. At the end of each fiscal
year, all unused moneys in the fund shall revert to the state
road fund.
(b) The moneys in the fund shall be expended by the division
of highways for constructing and maintaining industrial access
roads within counties and municipalities to industrial sites on
which manufacturing, distribution, processing or other economic
development activities, including publicly owned airports, are
already constructed or are under firm contract to be constructed.
In the event there is no industrial site already constructed or
for which the construction is under firm contract, a county or
municipality may guarantee to the division of highways by bond or
other acceptable device an acceptable surety or a device in an
amount equal to the estimated cost of the access road or that
portion provided by the division of highways, that an industrial
site will be constructed and if no industrial site acceptable to
the division of highways is constructed within the time limits of
the bond, such bond device, such device shall be forfeited.
§17-3A-4. Restrictions on use of fund.
(a) The fund may not be used for the adjustment of utilities or for the construction of industrial access roads to schools,
hospitals, libraries, armories, shopping centers, apartment
buildings, government installations or similar facilities,
whether public or private. The fund may not be used to construct
industrial access roads on private property.
(b) Moneys from the fund may not be allocated expended until
the governing body of the county or municipality certifies to the
division of highways that the industrial site is constructed and
operating or is under firm contract to be constructed or
operated, or upon the presentation of acceptable surety or device
in an amount equal to the estimated cost of the access road or
that portion provided by the division of highways in accordance
with section one of this article.
(c) Not more than three four hundred thousand dollars of
unmatched moneys from the fund may be allocated for use in any
one county in any fiscal year. The maximum amount of unmatched
moneys which may be allocated from the fund is ten percent of the
fair market value of the designated industrial establishment.
The amount of unmatched funds allocated may be supplemented with
additional matched moneys from the fund, in which case the
matched moneys allocated from the fund may not exceed one hundred
fifty thousand dollars, to be matched equally from sources other
than the fund. The amount of matched moneys which may be
allocated from the fund over and above the unmatched funds may
not exceed five percent of the fair market value of the
designated industrial site.
(d) Funds may only be allocated to those items of
construction and engineering which are essential to providing an
adequate facility to serve the anticipated traffic. Funds may
not be allocated for items such as storm sewers, curbs, gutters
and extra pavement width unless necessary to extend or connect an
existing access road.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.