Senate Bill No. 4002
(By Senators Tomblin (Mr. President) and Caruth,
By Request of the Executive)
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[Introduced November 17, 2009; referred to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §5B-7-1, §5B-7-2,
§5B-7-3, §5B-7-4 and §5B-7-5, all relating to authorizing
counties to issue recovery zone bonds; allocating recovery
zone bond volume cap; implementing a process for the
reallocation, suballocation and waiver of recovery zone bonds
volume cap; and defining terms.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article, designated §5B-7-1, §5B-7-2,
§5B-7-3, §5B-7-4 and §5B-7-5, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7. RECOVERY ZONE BONDS.
§5B-7-1. Definitions.
Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, as used in this article:
(1) "Economic Development Authority" or "authority" means the
West Virginia Economic Development Authority as continued in
section five, article fifteen, chapter thirty-one of this code.
(2) "Recovery zone bonds" means recovery zone economic
development bonds and recovery zone facility bonds, authorized
under Section 1401 of Title I of Subtitle B of the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Pub. L. No. 111-5, 123 Stat.
115 (2009), that may be issued by states, counties, certain
municipalities and other qualified issuers within each state before
January 1, 2011.
(3) "Recovery zone economic development bond" means the term
as defined in 26 U. S. C. §1400U-2.
(4) "Recovery zone facility bond" means the term as defined in
26 U. S. C. §1400U-3.
(5) "Volume cap" means the recovery zone bond volume
limitation allocated to each state and to counties and
municipalities within each state in accordance with 26 U. S. C.
§1400U-1.
§5B-7-2. Allocation of volume cap for recovery zone bonds;
obligations not debt of state.
Pursuant to 26 U. S. C. §1400U-1(a)(3)(A), the State of West
Virginia shall allocate the volume cap among the counties of the state in the same manner as described in Section 6.04 of Internal
Revenue Service Notice 2009-50. Bonds, notes and other obligations
issued pursuant to this article shall not constitute a debt or a
pledge of the faith and credit or taxing power of this state and
the holders and owners thereof shall have no right to have taxes
levied by the Legislature for the payment of the principal thereof
or interest thereon, but such bonds, notes and other obligations
shall be payable solely from revenues and funds pledged for their
payment as established in the authorizing orders, ordinances and
resolutions of such issuers. All such bonds and notes, and all
documents evidencing any other obligation, shall contain on the
face thereof a statement to the effect that the bonds, notes or
such other obligation as to both principal and interest, are not
debts of the state but are payable solely from revenues and funds
pledged for their payment.
§5B-7-3. Certification and waiver of volume cap allocation.
(a)
Preliminary certification. --
(1) Each county allocated volume cap in accordance with this
article shall submit a preliminary certification to the Governor
that includes:
(A) The amount of volume cap the county intends to use;
(B)The entity issuing each series of recovery zone bonds.
If the county has suballocated volume cap to an entity, the certification shall include a copy of an order, ordinance or
resolution of the county commission authorizing the suballocation;
(C)The projects to be financed by the issuance of each
series of recovery zone bonds; and
(D)The financing plan for each series of recovery zone
bonds, including the source of payment of the debt service of each
series of recovery zone bonds.
(2) Preliminary certifications for recovery zone economic
development bonds shall be submitted to the Governor on or before
January 31, 2010.
(3) Preliminary certifications for recovery zone facility
bonds shall be submitted to the Governor on or before February 28,
2010.
(4) Any portion of volume cap allocated to a county that is
not certified for use by the county in accordance with this
subsection is considered waived.
(5) A county may waive its allocation of volume cap by
providing written notice of such waiver to the Governor on or
before January 31, 2010, in the case of volume cap for recovery
zone economic development bonds, or on or before February 28, 2010,
in the case of volume cap for recovery zone facility bonds.
(b)
Final certification. --
(1) Each county that has submitted a preliminary certification to the Governor shall submit a final certification to the Governor
on or before July 31, 2010. The final certification shall
establish: (i) That the county or other entity receiving a
suballocation from the county has closed on each series of recovery
zone bonds or has entered into a bond purchase agreement that
requires closing on each series of recovery zone bonds prior to
August 31, 2010; and (ii) the amount of volume cap used by the
county.
(2) Any portion of volume cap allocated to a county that is
not certified as used in accordance with this subsection is
considered waived. However, if an entity receiving a suballocation
from a county submits a timely certification pursuant to section
five of this article, that suballocated portion of the county's
volume cap is not considered waived.
(3) If, after submitting a preliminary certification to the
Governor, a county determines to waive any portion of its
allocation of volume cap, it may waive its allocation of such
portion by notifying the Governor in writing on or before July 31,
2010.
(c)
Notice of waiver. -- The Governor shall provide timely
written notice to the Economic Development Authority of any written
volume cap waiver submitted by a county.
§5B-7-4. Reallocation of volume cap.
(a) The Economic Development Authority shall reallocate
volume cap that has been waived pursuant to this article. The
authority may reallocate the volume cap to the state, state
agencies, counties, municipalities or any other political
subdivisions or any other eligible issuer authorized to issue
recovery zone bonds pursuant to Section 5.04 of Internal Revenue
Service Notice 2009-50.
(b) As soon as reasonably possible after the effective date of
this section the authority shall adopt a procedure for the
solicitation and receipt of applications, on a form and in a manner
prescribed by the authority, for eligible issuers seeking
reallocated volume cap.
(c) Within ninety days of receipt of written notice from the
Governor the authority shall reallocate any amount of volume cap
waived by a county pursuant to this article. The authority shall
provide written notice of any reallocation to the entity receiving
the reallocation.
§5B-7-5. Suballocation of volume cap by counties; counties
authorized to take action to issue recovery zone
bonds.
Counties allocated volume cap pursuant to this article may, by
order, ordinance or resolution of the county commission,
suballocate such allocation to municipalities or any other eligible issuers authorized to issue recovery zone bonds pursuant to Section
5.04 of Internal Revenue Service Notice 2009-50. Each county that
suballocates volume cap shall attach a copy of the order, ordinance
or resolution authorizing the suballocation to the preliminary
certification required in section three of this article. Entities
receiving a suballocation pursuant to this section shall certify to
the county and to the Governor no later than July 31, 2010, that
the entity has closed on the recovery zone bonds using the volume
cap suballocation or has entered into a bond purchase agreement
that requires a closing on the recovery zone bonds prior to August
31, 2010. Counties shall be authorized to take any other action
required by Internal Revenue Service Notice 2009-50 to issue
recovery zone bonds.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to enable West Virginia
counties to use the federal allocation of recovery zone bonds
authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ("ARRA").
Recovery zone bonds are split into two separate categories of
bonds: recovery zone economic development bonds and recovery zone
facility bonds. Recovery zone economic development bonds are a
type of taxable Build America Bond that allow state and local
governments to obtain lower borrowing costs through a new direct
federal payment subsidy, for forty-five percent of the interest, to
finance a broad range of qualified economic development projects.
Recovery Zone Facility Bonds are a type of traditional tax-exempt
private activity bond that may be used by private businesses in
designated recovery zones to finance a broad range of depreciable
capital projects. These bonds may be used in "recovery zones,"
which include any area that has been designated by the bond issuer
as having significant poverty, unemployment, home foreclosure or
general distress, or any area affected by military realignment, or
any area that has been designated as an empowerment zone or a
renewal community.
West Virginia has been allocated a bond limitation of
$90,000,000 for recovery zone economic development bonds and
$135,000,000 for recovery zone facility bonds. These bond
limitations, or volume caps, must be reallocated to certain West
Virginia counties, based on their decrease in employment compared
to the state's decrease in employment. The United State Treasury
Department and the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") have calculated
the reallocation amounts, which are available at
http://www.
treas.gov/press/releases/docs/rzballocation-local_AR-ZS.pdf.
Counties need not use their volume cap, and may waive their
allocation. The bill provides that counties may also sub-allocate
their volume cap to other eligible bond issuers.
This bill also sets forth a procedure to certify to the
Governor that counties are using, or sub-allocating, their bond
allocation. In accordance with IRS guidance issued regarding
recovery bonds, any bond allocation that is waived by counties may
be reallocated by the state. This bill provides that the Economic
Development Authority will develop a procedure to reallocate such
waived allocations.
This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.