Senate Bill No. 605
(By Senators McCabe and Foster)
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[Introduced February 7, 2008; referred to the Committee on
Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §18-9A-11 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to computation of local share,
appraisal and assessment of property; and local library
support.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-9A-11 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9A. PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT.
§18-9A-11. Computation of local share; appraisal and assessment of
property; public library support.
(a) On the basis of each county's certificates of valuation as
to all classes of property as determined and published by the
assessors pursuant to section six, article three, chapter eleven of
this code for the next ensuing fiscal year in reliance upon the
assessed values annually developed by each county assessor pursuant to the provisions of articles one-c and three of said chapter, the
state board shall for each county compute by application of the
levies for general current expense purposes, as defined in section
two of this article, the amount of revenue which the levies would
produce if levied upon one hundred percent of the assessed value of
each of the several classes of property contained in the report or
revised report of the value, made to it by the Tax Commissioner as
follows:
(1) The state board shall first take ninety-five percent of
the amount ascertained by applying these rates to the total
assessed public utility valuation in each classification of
property in the county.
(2) The state board shall then apply these rates to the
assessed taxable value of other property in each classification in
the county as determined by the Tax Commissioner and shall deduct
therefrom five percent as an allowance for the usual losses in
collections due to discounts, exonerations, delinquencies and the
like. All of the amount so determined shall be added to the
ninety-five percent of public utility taxes computed as provided in
subdivision (1) of this subsection and this total shall be further
reduced by the amount due each county assessor's office pursuant to
the provisions of section eight, article one-c, chapter eleven of
this code and this amount shall be the local share of the
particular county.
As to any estimations or preliminary computations of local
share required prior to the report to the Legislature by the Tax
Commissioner, the state shall use the most recent projections or
estimations that may be available from the Tax Department for that
purpose.
(b) Commencing with the two thousand thirteen fiscal year and
each fiscal year thereafter, subsection (a) of this section is void
and local share shall be calculated in accordance with the
following:
(1) The state board shall for each county compute by
application of the levies for general current expense purposes, as
defined in sections two and two-a of this article, the amount of
revenue which the levies would produce if levied upon one hundred
percent of the assessed value calculated pursuant to section
five-b, article one-c, chapter eleven of this code;
(2) Five percent shall be deducted from the revenue calculated
pursuant to subdivision (1) of this subsection as an allowance for
the usual losses in collections due to discounts, exonerations,
delinquencies and the like; and
(3) The amount calculated in subdivision (2) of this
subsection shall further be reduced by the sum of money due each
assessor's office pursuant to the provisions of section eight,
article one-c, chapter eleven of this code and this reduced amount
shall be the local share of the particular county.
(c) Whenever in any year a county assessor or a county
commission shall fail or refuse to comply with the provisions of
this section in setting the valuations of property for assessment
purposes in any class or classes of property in the county, the
State Tax Commissioner shall review the valuations for assessment
purposes made by the county assessor and the county commission and
shall direct the county assessor and the county commission to make
corrections in the valuations as necessary so that they shall
comply with the requirements of chapter eleven of this code and
this section and the Tax Commissioner shall enter the county and
fix the assessments at the required ratios. Refusal of the
assessor or the county commission to make the corrections
constitutes grounds for removal from office.
(d) For the purposes of any computation made in accordance
with the provisions of this section, in any taxing unit in which
tax increment financing is in effect pursuant to the provisions of
article eleven-b, chapter seven of this code, the assessed value of
a related private project shall be the base-assessed value as
defined in section two of said article.
(e) For purposes of any computation made in accordance with
the provisions of this section, in any county where the county
board of education has adopted a resolution choosing to use the
provisions of the Growth County School Facilities Act set forth in
section six-f, article eight, chapter eleven of this code, estimated school board revenues generated from application of the
regular school board levy rate to new property values, as that term
is designated in said section, may not be considered local share
funds and shall be subtracted before the computations in
subdivisions (1) and (2), subsection (a) of this section or in
subdivisions (2) and (3), subsection (b) of this section as
applicable, are made.
(f) The Legislature finds that public school systems
throughout the state provide support in varying degrees to public
libraries through a variety of means including budgeted
allocations, excess levy funds and portions of their regular school
board levies as may be provided by special act. A number of public
libraries are situated on the campuses of public schools and
several are within public school buildings serving both the
students and public patrons. To the extent that public schools
recognize and choose to avail the resources of public libraries
toward developing within their students such legally recognized
elements of a thorough and efficient education as literacy,
interests in literature, knowledge of government and the world
around them and preparation for advanced academic training, work
and citizenship, public libraries serve a legitimate school purpose
and may do so economically. For the purposes of any computation
made in accordance with the provisions of this section, the library
funding obligation on the regular school board levies created by a special act shall be paid from that portion of the levies which
exceeds the proportion determined to be local share. If the
library funding obligation is greater than the amount available in
excess of the county's local share, the obligation created by the
special act is reduced to the amount which is available,
notwithstanding any provisions of the special act to the contrary.
(g) It is the intent of the Legislature that whenever a
provision of subsection (f) of this section is contrary to any
special act of the Legislature which has been or may in the future
be enacted by the Legislature that creates a library funding
obligation on the regular school board levy of a county, subsection
(f) of this section controls over the special act. Specifically,
the special acts which are subject to said subsection upon the
enactment of this section during the two thousand seven regular
session of the Legislature include:
(1) Enrolled Senate Bill No. 11, passed on the twelfth day of
February, one thousand nine hundred seventy, applicable to the
Berkeley County Board of Education;
(2) Enrolled House Bill No. 1352, passed on the seventh day of
April, one thousand nine hundred eighty-one, applicable to the
Hardy County Board of Education;
(3) Enrolled Committee Substitute for House Bill No. 2833,
passed on the fourteenth day of March, one thousand nine hundred
eighty-seven, applicable to the Harrison County Board of Education;
(4) Enrolled House Bill No. 161, passed on the sixth day of
March, one thousand nine hundred fifty-seven, applicable to the
Kanawha County Board of Education;
(5) Enrolled Senate Bill No. 313, passed on the twelfth day of
March, one thousand nine hundred thirty-seven, as amended by
Enrolled House Bill No. 1074, passed on the eighth day of March,
one thousand nine hundred sixty-seven, and as amended by Enrolled
House Bill No. 1195, passed on the eighteenth day of January, one
thousand nine hundred eighty-two, applicable to the Ohio County
Board of Education;
(6) Enrolled House Bill No. 938, passed on the twenty-eighth
day of February, one thousand nine hundred sixty-nine, applicable
to the Raleigh County Board of Education;
(7) Enrolled House Bill No. 398, passed on the first day of
March, one thousand nine hundred thirty-five, applicable to the
Tyler County Board of Education;
(8) Enrolled Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 450,
passed on the eleventh day of March, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-four, applicable to the Upshur County Board of Education;
and
(9) Enrolled House Bill No. 2994, passed on the thirteenth day
of March, one thousand nine hundred eighty-seven, applicable to the
Wood County Board of Education.
(h) Notwithstanding any provision of any special act set forth in subsection (g) of this section to the contrary, the county board
of any county with a special act creating a library obligation out
of the county's regular school levy revenues may transfer that
library obligation so that it becomes an obligation of its excess
levy revenues instead of its regular school levy revenues, subject
to the following:
(1) If a county board chooses to transfer the library
obligation pursuant to this subsection, the library funding
obligation shall remain an obligation of the regular school levy
revenues until
after the fiscal year in which
a vote on an the
excess levy
occurs is effective or would have been effective if it
had been passed by the voters;
(2) If a county board chooses to transfer the library
obligation pursuant to this subsection, the county board shall
include the funding of the public library obligation in the same
amount as its library funding obligation on its regular levy
revenues as the purpose or one of the purposes for the excess levy
to be voted on;
(3) If a county board chooses to transfer the library
obligation pursuant to this subsection, regardless of whether or
not the excess levy passes, effective the fiscal year
after the
fiscal year in which
a vote on the excess levy
occurs, is effective
or would have been effective if it had been passed by the voters,
a county's library obligation on its regular levy revenues is void notwithstanding any provision of the special acts set forth in
subsection (g) of this section to the contrary; and
(4) Nothing in subdivision (3) of this subsection prohibits a
county board from funding its public library obligation
voluntarily.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify that if a county
board of education moved the library funding obligation of a
"special act library" from the regular tax levy to the excess levy,
the library funding obligation under the special act would cease in
the fiscal year in which the excess levy became effective or would
have become effective if it had been passed by the voters.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.