HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO.
(By Delegates Love, Pettit, Givens and Ennis)
(Introduced ; referred to the
Committee on.)
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, amending section one, article ten thereof,
relating to decreasing the percentage of votes required to
pass a levy from sixty percent to fifty percent; numbering
and designating such proposed amendment; and providing a
summarized statement of the purpose of such proposed
amendment.
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of
the members elected to each house agreeing thereto:
That the question of ratification or rejection of an
amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be
submitted to the voters of the State at the next general election
to be held in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-six,
which proposed amendment is that section one, article ten thereof
be amended, to read as follows:
ARTICLE X. TAXATION AND FINANCE.
1. Taxation and finance.
Subject to the exceptions in this section contained,
taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the state, and all
property, both real and personal, shall be taxed in proportion to
its value to be ascertained as directed by law. No one speciesof property from which a tax may be collected shall be taxed
higher than any other species of property of equal value; except
that the aggregate of taxes assessed in any one year upon
personal property employed exclusively in agriculture, including
horticulture and grazing, products of agriculture as above
defined, including livestock, while owned by the producer, and
money, notes, bonds, bills and accounts receivable, stocks and
other similar intangible personal property shall not exceed fifty
cents on each one hundred dollars of value thereon and upon all
property owned, used and occupied by the owner thereof
exclusively for residential purposes and upon farms occupied and
cultivated by their owners or bona fide tenants, one dollar; and
upon all other property situated outside of municipalities, one
dollar and fifty cents; and upon all other property situated
within municipalities, two dollars; and the Legislature shall
further provide by general law for increasing the maximum rates,
authorized to be fixed, by the different levying bodies upon all
classes of property, by submitting the question to the voters of
the taxing units affected, but no increase shall be effective
unless at least sixty fifty percent of the qualified voters shall
favor such increase, and such increase shall not continue for a
longer period than three years at any one time, and shall never
exceed by more than fifty percent the maximum rate herein
provided and prescribed by law; and the revenue derived from this
source shall be apportioned by the Legislature among the levying
units of the state in proportion to the levy laid in said unitsupon real and other personal property; but property used for
educational, literary, scientific, religious or charitable
purposes, all cemeteries, public property, the personal property,
including livestock, employed exclusively in agriculture as above
defined and the products of agriculture as so defined while owned
by the producers may by law be exempted from taxation; household
goods to the value of two hundred dollars shall be exempted from
taxation. The Legislature shall have authority to tax
privileges, franchises, and incomes of persons and corporations
and to classify and graduate the tax on all incomes according to
the amount thereof and to exempt from taxation incomes below a
minimum to be fixed from time to time, and such revenues as may
be derived from such tax may be appropriated as the Legislature
may provide. After the year nineteen one thousand nine hundred
thirty-three, the rate of the state tax upon property shall not
exceed one cent upon the hundred dollars valuation, except to pay
the principal and interest of bonded indebtedness of the state
now existing.
Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of
article eleven, chapter three of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, such proposed
amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment No. 1" and designated as
the "Decrease percentage of votes required to pass a levy from
sixty percent to fifty percent amendment," and the purpose of the
proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "To amend section
one, article X of the State Constitution to decrease percentageof votes required to pass a levy from sixty percent to fifty
percent."
NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to decrease the
percentage of votes that is required to pass a levy from sixty
percent to fifty percent.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present Constitution, and underscoring indicates new
language that would be added.