H. B. 2257
(By Delegates Amores, Ron Thompson and Frederick)
[Introduced
January 11, 2006
; referred to the
Committee on Industry and Labor, Economic Development and
Small Business then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §5B-2D-2 and §5B-2D-3 of the Code of
West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to the allowable
training costs for employees of high technology companies
payable under the West Virginia Guaranteed Work Force Program;
providing that any manufacturer of computer components, any
software developer or any manufacturers using integrated
computer systems is eligible for up to two thousand dollars in
employee training grants without regard to the number of new
jobs generated in one year.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §5B-2D-2 and §5B-2D-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931,
as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2D. WEST VIRGINIA GUARANTEED WORK FORCE PROGRAM.
§5B-2D-2. Definitions.
As used in this article, the following words and terms have
the following meanings unless the context indicates another or
different meaning or intent:
(1) "WVDO" means the West Virginia Development Office;
(2) "Employer" means an individual, partnership, corporation
or other legal entity that employs or plans to employ skilled
workers;
(3) "Retraining and job upgrade" means the specialized
training that is given to an identified level of employees to
enable them to advance to a higher level of employment;
(4) "Program" means the West Virginia Guaranteed Work Force
Program established pursuant to section three of this article;
(5) "Training" means custom-designed training given to
employees or prospective employees of new or expanding businesses
and industries within the State;
(6) "Training provider" means any persons, public or private
educational institutions, agencies, companies or other entities
that may be utilized for training or consultative services for an
employer;
(7) "Affiliate" means and includes all persons, as defined in
this section, which are affiliates of each other when either
directly or indirectly:
(A) One person controls or has the power to control the other;
or
(B) 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;
(8) "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;
(9) "Commercial computer property" means computer property
directly used in manufacturing;
(10) "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;
(11) "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;
(12) "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;
(13) "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;
(14) "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;
(15) "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;
(16) "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;
(17) "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;
(18) "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;
(19) "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;
(20) "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;
(21) "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);
(22) "Manufacturer" means a person engaged in the activity of
manufacturing in this State;
(23) "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;
(24) "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;
(25) "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;
(26) "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;
(27) "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;
(28) "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;
(29) "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;
(30) "Part-time employee" means any employee who normally
works twenty hours or less per week;
(31) "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;
(32) "Seasonal employee" means an employee who normally works
on a full-time basis less than five months in a year;
(33) "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.
The West Virginia Development Office shall develop a business
and industrial training program, the purpose of which is to provide
assistance for new or expanding businesses for the training,
retraining or upgrading of the skills of potential employees. The
program shall emphasize employee training specifically designed to
accommodate the needs of individual employers. The program shall
encourage the expansion of existing businesses and industries
within the State, promote retention of businesses and industries
within the State, promote retention of existing jobs within the
state, prevent economic and industrial out-migration, and assist in the relocation of out-of-state businesses and industries in the
state. Under this program, the West Virginia Development Office
may pay up to one hundred percent or two thousand dollars per
employee, whichever is less, of training costs of new employees in
firms creating at least ten jobs in a one-year period: Provided,
That the West Virginia Development Office may pay up to one hundred
percent or two thousand dollars per employee, whichever is less, of
training costs of new employees in high technology companies which
meet one of three criteria: (1) Are a manufacturer of computer
components; (2) are a developer of intellectual property, also
known as software; or (3) are manufacturers using computers as an
integral part of their manufacturing process. Training assistance
may also be provided to existing businesses in cases in which
training, retraining or upgrading services will result in the
retention of existing jobs or the creation of additional jobs, or
both: Provided, however, That the West Virginia Development Office
may pay up to one hundred percent or two thousand dollars per
employee, whichever is less, for the training, retraining or
upgrading: Provided further, That the West Virginia Development
Office may pay up to one hundred percent or two thousand dollars
per employee, whichever is less, of training, retraining or
upgrading costs of employees in existing high technology companies
which meet one of three criteria: (1) Are a manufacturer of
computer components; (2) are a developer of intellectual property,
also known as software; or (3) are manufacturers using computers as
an integral part of their manufacturing process. Training costs associated with this program will be paid directly by the training
provider.
Provision of training services will depend upon the employer
meeting program requirements as set forth by the West Virginia
Development Office and this article. The State of West Virginia
guarantees if employer satisfaction is not achieved, the West
Virginia Development Office will carefully review the effectiveness
of the recently completed training plan and program with the
employer and the training provider. After such review, if the West
Virginia Development Office determines that the training program
was inadequate to meet the employer's specifications and
satisfaction as originally agreed to, then those employees so
trained shall be eligible for retraining under the guarantee
provision except when the training program curriculum or provider
were selected solely at the discretion of the employer, then no
such additional training shall be considered or approved:
Provided, That in no instance may the cost of training and
retraining an employee exceed four thousand dollars.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that any
manufacturer of computer components, any software developer or any
manufacturers using integrated computer systems is eligible for up
to two thousand dollars in employee training grants without regard
to the number of new jobs generated in one year.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.