Committee on Finance.]

A BILL to amend and reenact sections two and three, article two-d, chapter five-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating to increasing the allowable training costs for employees of high technology companies payable under the West Virginia Guaranteed Work Force Program; and adding definitions.

ARTICLE 2D. WEST VIRGINIA GUARANTEED WORK FORCE PROGRAM.

(g) "Affiliate" means and includes all persons, as defined in this section, which are affiliates of each other when either directly or indirectly:
(1) One person controls or has the power to control the other; or
(2) A third party or third parties control or have the power to control two persons, the two thus being affiliates. In determining whether concerns are independently owned and operated and whether or not an affiliation exists, consideration shall be given to all appropriate factors, including common ownership, common management and contractual relationships;
(h) "Business" means any person holding a valid current West Virginia business registration certificate under article twelve-c of this chapter engaging in business in this state;
(i) "Commercial computer property" means computer property directly used in manufacturing;
(j) "Computer" means an electronic, magnetic, optical, electrochemical, or other high speed data processing device the primary end use function of which includes performing logical, arithmetical, or data storage operations. The term "computer" includes any data storage apparatus or communication apparatus directly related to or operating in conjunction with such device. The term "computer" includes any connected or directly related device, equipment or apparatus which enables the computer to store, retrieve or communicate computer programs, computer data or the results of computer operations to or from a person, another computer or another device. The term "computer" includes, but is not limited to, personal computers, desk-top computers, lap-top computers, palm-top computers, microcomputers, mainframe computers, server computers and super computers, but such term does not include an automated typewriter or typesetter, a portable hand-held calculator or other similar device, any device that is excluded from the definition of a computer supply, or any device with a processor, the function of which facilitates some other end use operation, such as a household appliance or motor vehicle;
(k) "Computer data" means any representation of knowledge, facts, concepts, instruction, or other information computed, classified, processed, transmitted, received, retrieved, originated, stored, manifested, measured, detected, recorded, reproduced, handled or utilized by a computer, computer network, computer program or computer software, and may be in any medium, including, but not limited to, computer printouts, microfilm, microfiche, magnetic storage media, optical storage media, punch paper tape or punch cards, or it may be stored internally in read-only memory or random access memory of a computer or any other peripheral device;
(l) "Computer network" means a set of connected devices and communication facilities, including more than one computer, with the capability to transmit computer data among such devices through such communication facilities, and includes local area networks;
(m) "Computer program" means an ordered set of computer data representing instructions or statements, in a form readable by a computer, which controls, directs, or otherwise influences the functioning of a computer or computer network;
(n) "Computer property" means all computers, computer software, computer data, computer networks, computer programs and computer supplies, but does not include any printer, or other peripheral devices connected to or operated by a computer, or any manufacturing machinery controlled by a computer or any other machine or device controlled by a computer which does not itself constitute a computer or computer supply;
(o) "Computer software" means a set of computer programs, procedures and associated documentation concerned with computer data or with the operation of a computer, computer program or computer network;
(p) "Computer supply" or "computer supplies" means punch cards, paper tape, magnetic tape, magnetic disks or diskettes, optical disks or diskettes, disk or diskette packs, modems, computer input scanners, and any other tangible input, transmission or storage medium used in connection with a computer, a computer network, computer data, computer software or a computer program. The term "computer supplies" also includes, but is not limited to, computer work stations, computer monitors, computer keyboards, computer mice, computer track balls and other computer pointing devices, computer modems, computer central processing units, computer hard disk drives, computer floppy disk drives, computer tape drives, computer drum storage memory drives and computer compact disk read only memory units (CD ROMS). The term "computer supplies" includes computer driven and controlled printers or plotters for the printing of ordinary office correspondence and similar documents. However, no printer or printing press or other printing device used in the manufacture of newspapers or other large volume printing operations may be included as a computer supply for purposes of this article. The term "computer supply" does not include any manufacturing machinery controlled by a computer or any other machine or device controlled by a computer which does not itself constitute a computer or computer supply. The term "computer supplies" includes computer driven and controlled fax machines or facsimile machines that interface directly with a computer, but does not include ordinary stand alone fax machines not interfaced with a computer, notwithstanding the fact that such ordinary fax machines may have memory features and other electronic or cybernetic features similar to those found in a computer;
(q) "Corporation" includes any corporation, a joint-stock company and any association or other organization which is classified as a corporation under federal income tax law;
(r) "Directly used in manufacturing," in relation to computer property directly used in manufacturing, means directly used in West Virginia by a manufacturer or manufacturing service provider in those activities or operations which constitute an integral and essential part of the manufacturing activity, as contrasted with and distinguished from those activities or operations which are simply incidental, convenient or remote to the manufacturing activity;
(s) "Existing manufacturing facility" means a building which at anytime during the twelve months preceding the month in which manufacture of a high technology product begins was used by the taxpayer, or by a related person, to manufacture tangible personal property;
(t) "Full-time employee" means a permanent hourly employee of an eligible taxpayer, who is a West Virginia domiciled resident, and works in a new high technology product manufacturing facility in this state, or in a new high technology product line of an existing manufacturing facility in this state, more than eighteen hundred hours during the entire twelve-month period ending on the last day of the taxable year of the eligible employer, whether these hours are hours worked at the manufacturing facility, or include hours of employer paid vacation leave or other employer paid leave. Full-time employee does not include an employee who is a part-time, seasonal or temporary employee;
(u) "Manufacturing facility" means any facility which is used in the manufacturing of tangible personal property (including processing resulting in a change in the condition of such property);
(v) "Manufacturer" means a person engaged in the activity of manufacturing in this state;
(w) "Manufacturing" means a systematic operation or integrated series of systematic operations engaged in as a business or segment of a business which transforms or converts tangible personal property by physical, chemical or other means into a different form, composition or character from that in which it originally existed. Manufacturing includes software development and software manufacturing. Manufacturing includes the production or use of advanced or sophisticated devices in the fields of electronics and computers which are commonly referred to as "high tech" or " high technology". In no case does the term "manufacturing" include the activities of building construction, construction of other structures or facilities affixed to or on realty, retailing or agriculture, food processing or food manufacturing, the operation of any restaurant or retail food preparation or sales operation, the production of any natural resource, contract mining or any other activity of severing, producing, processing or extracting any natural resource. Manufacturing production begins with the arrival of raw materials and ends when the property has reached that point where no further chemical, physical or other changes are to be made to the resultant property in the production process;
(x) "Manufacturing service provider" means a person engaged in a manufacturing activity who does not have legal title to or any economic interest in the tangible personal property transformed or converted by the manufacturing process, and who engages in the manufacturing activity as a service to another person;
(y) "New high technology" means the manufacture of a high technology product in an existing manufacturing facility in this state that first begins manufacturing the new high technology product line after the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine;
(z) "New high technology product manufacturing facility" means a building that is primarily used by the eligible taxpayer to manufacture a high technology product that is first placed in service and used for that purpose by the eligible taxpayer after the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine. If the facility was used by the taxpayer, or by a related person, to manufacture tangible personal property at any time during the twelve months preceding the month in which the facility is first used by the taxpayer to manufacture a high technology product, the building is not a new high technology product manufacturing facility;
(aa) "New job" means a job at a new high technology product manufacturing facility located in this state, or at a new high technology product line at an existing manufacturing facility located in this state, which did not exist in this state with any employer as of the first day of the second calendar month preceding the calendar month in which the new high technology product manufacturing facility begins to manufacture high technology products, or in which the new high technology product line begins to manufacture high technology products in an existing manufacturing facility located in this state, that is filled by a full-time employee of the eligible taxpayer;
(bb) "Partnership" means and includes a syndicate, group, pool, joint venture or other unincorporated organization through or by means of which any business, financial operation, or venture is carried on, which is classified as a partnership for federal income tax purposes for the taxable year;
(cc) "Partner" includes a member in a syndicate, group, pool, joint venture or organization classified as a partnership for federal income tax purposes for the taxable year;
(dd) "Part-time employee" means any employee who normally works twenty hours or less per week;
(ee) "Person" means any natural person, individual, firm, general partnership, limited partnership, trust, association, corporation, joint venture, limited liability company, joint stock company, this state or any subdivision, branch, department or agency thereof, or any county or municipal government of this state or any subdivision, branch, department or agency thereof, the government of the United States or any subdivision, branch, department or agency thereof, any public or private corporation, municipal corporation of this state, cooperative, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, executor, administrator, any other fiduciary, any representative appointed by order of any court or otherwise acting on behalf of others, or any other group or combination acting as a unit;
(ff) "Seasonal employee" means an employee who normally works on a full-time basis less than five months in a year;
(gg) "Temporary employee" means an employee performing services under a contractual arrangement with the employer of two years or less duration.

§5B-2D-3. Training program.