WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE

2024 REGULAR SESSION

Introduced

House Bill 5443

By Delegates Cannon, Linville, Fehrenbacher, Riley, Barnhart, Garcia, Maynor, Dittman, Rohrbach, Howell, and Holstein

[Introduced February 5, 2024; Referred to the
Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence
then Technology and Infrastructure]

A BILL to amend and reenact §11-6J-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to the ad valorem property valuation of specialized high-technology property; providing that certain property used in electronic data processing services be included as specialized high-technology property.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

ARTICLE 6J. SPECIAL METHOD FOR VALUATION OF CERTAIN HIGH-TECHNOLOGY PROPERTY.

§11-6J-3. Valuation of certain specialized high-technology property.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, the value of servers directly used in a high-technology business, including, without limitation, electronic data processing services,  or in an Internet advertising business, as defined in §11-15-9h of this code, and the value of tangible personal property directly used in a high-technology business, including, without limitation, electronic data processing services, or in an Internet advertising business, as defined in said section, for the purpose of ad valorem property taxation under this chapter and under article X of the Constitution of this state, shall be its salvage value. As referenced in this chapter, electronic data processing services shall, as a high technology business, be deemed to include, without limitation, the hosting and processing of electronic data as part of a data center operation and high-performance data computing to process data and perform complex computation and solve algorithms at high speeds in connection with digital, blockchain, and/or artificial intelligence technologies.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to include in the high-technology property valuation statute the hosting and processing of electronic data as part of a data center operation and high-performance data computing to process data and perform complex computation and solve algorithms at high speeds in connection with digital, blockchain, and/or artificial intelligence technologies.

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