WEST virginia legislature

2019 regular session

Introduced

Senate Bill 75

By Senators Sypolt and Boso

[Introduced January 9, 2019; Referred
to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development; and then to the Committee on Finance]

A BILL to amend and reenact §7-7-6e of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to authorizing owners of breeding-age cows to participate in the Coyote Control Program by paying a voluntary head tax.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

article 7. compensation of elected county officials.

§7-7-6e. Collection of head tax on breeding age sheep and goats; duties of county assessors and Commissioner of Agriculture; deposit of tax collections; creation of special revenue fund; purposes; voluntary head tax collection on cows.

(a) After the thirtieth day of June, two thousand five, it shall be the duty of the The county assessor and his or her deputies of each county within the state, at the time they are making assessments of the personal property within such county, to shall assess and collect an assessment of $1 on all breeding age sheep and $1 on all breeding age goats. Owners of breeding age cows may choose to participate in the program, in which case the owner shall remit $1 on all breeding age cows to the county assessor.

(b) The assessor collecting the assessment on breeding age sheep and goats shall be allowed a commission of 10 percent upon all such taxes collected and shall send the Commissioner of Agriculture ninety percent of such the taxes so collected, who shall deposit the same in a special account in the State Treasury to be known as the “Integrated Predation Management Fund.” Expenditures from the fund shall be for the purposes set forth in this section and are not authorized from collections but are to be made only in accordance with appropriation by the Legislature and in accordance with the provisions of §12-3-1 et seq. of this code and upon the fulfillment of the provisions set forth in § 11B-2-1 et seq. of this code. Provided, That for the fiscal year ending the thirtieth day of June, two thousand six, expenditures are authorized from collections rather than pursuant to an appropriation by the Legislature

(c) The money in the fund shall be used by the Commissioner of Agriculture solely to enter into a cooperative service agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Wildlife Services (WS) to expand the Coyote Control Program statewide.

(d) Any person who does not pay this assessment is not eligible for the services provided by this cooperative agreement.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to expand access to the Coyote Control Program to persons with breeding age cows, who may choose to voluntarily participate in the program by paying a $1 assessment per head.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.