COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
SENATE BILL NO. 221
(By Senators Craigo, Blatnik, Helmick,
Love, Schoonover and Ross)
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[Originating in the Committee on Finance;
reported on February 28, 1995.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section six, article thirteen-a,
chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
requirements for budgeting additional tax on severance,
extraction and production of coal.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section six, article thirteen-a, chapter eleven of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-
one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 13A. SEVERANCE TAXES.
§11-13A-6. Additional tax on the severance, extraction and
production of coal; dedication of additional tax for
benefit of counties and municipalities; distribution of
major portion of such additional tax to coal-producing counties; distribution of minor portion of such additional
tax to all counties and municipalities; reports; rules;
creation of special funds in office of state treasurer;
method and formulas for distribution of such additional
tax; expenditure of funds by counties and municipalities
for public purposes; and requiring special county and
municipal budgets and reports thereon.
(a) Additional coal severance tax. -- Upon every person
exercising the privilege of engaging or continuing within this
state in the business of severing coal or preparing coal, or
both, for sale, profit or commercial use, there is hereby
imposed an additional severance tax, the amount of which shall
be equal to the value of the coal severed or prepared, or both,
against which the tax imposed by section three of this article
is measured, as shown by the gross proceeds derived from the
sale thereof by the producer, multiplied by thirty-five one
hundredths of one percent. The tax imposed by this subsection
shall be in addition to the tax imposed by section three of
this article and this additional tax is hereinafter in this
section referred to as the "additional tax on coal".
(b) This additional tax on coal is imposed pursuant to the
provisions of section six-a, article X of the constitution of
West Virginia. Seventy-five percent of the net proceeds of
this additional tax on coal shall, after appropriation thereof by the Legislature, be distributed by the state treasurer in
the manner hereinafter specified, to the various counties of
this state in which the coal upon which this additional tax is
imposed was located at the time it was severed from the ground.
Those counties are hereinafter in this section referred to as
the "coal-producing counties". The remaining twenty-five
percent of the net proceeds of this additional tax on coal
shall be distributed, after appropriation, among all the
counties and municipalities of this state in the manner
hereinafter specified.
(c) Such additional tax on coal shall be due and payable,
reported and remitted as elsewhere provided in this article for
the tax imposed by section three of this article, and all of
the enforcement and other provisions of this article shall
apply to such additional tax. In addition to the reports and
other information required under the provisions of this article
and the tonnage reports required to be filed under the
provisions of section seventy-seven, article two, chapter
twenty-two-a of this code, the tax commissioner is hereby
granted plenary power and authority to promulgate reasonable
rules requiring the furnishing by producers of such additional
information as may be necessary to compute the allocation
required under the provisions of subsection (f) of this section. The tax commissioner is also hereby granted plenary
power and authority to promulgate such other reasonable rules
as may be necessary to implement the provisions of this
section: Provided, That notwithstanding any language contained
in this code to the contrary, the gross amount of additional
tax on coal collected under this article shall be paid over and
distributed without the application of any credits against the
tax imposed by this section.
(d) In order to provide a procedure for the distribution
of seventy-five percent of the net proceeds of such additional
tax on coal to such coal-producing counties, there is hereby
continued in the state treasurer's office the special fund
known as the "county coal revenue fund"; and in order to
provide a procedure for the distribution of the remaining
twenty-five percent of the net proceeds of such additional tax
on coal to all counties and municipalities of the state,
without regard to coal having been produced therein, there is
also hereby continued in the state treasurer's office the
special fund known as the "all counties and municipalities
revenue fund".
Seventy-five percent of the net proceeds of such
additional tax on coal shall be deposited in the "county coal revenue fund" and twenty-five percent of such net proceeds
shall be deposited in the "all counties and municipalities
revenue fund", from time to time, as such proceeds are received
by the tax commissioner. The moneys in such funds shall, after
appropriation thereof by the Legislature, be distributed to the
respective counties and municipalities entitled thereto in the
manner set forth in subsection (e) of this section.
(e) The moneys in the "county coal revenue fund" and the
moneys in the "all counties and municipalities revenue fund"
shall be allocated among and distributed quarterly to the
counties and municipalities entitled thereto by the state
treasurer in the manner hereinafter specified. On or before
each distribution date, the state treasurer shall determine the
total amount of moneys in each fund which will be available for
distribution to the respective counties and municipalities
entitled thereto on that distribution date. The amount to
which a coal-producing county is entitled from the "county coal
revenue fund" shall be determined in accordance with subsection
(f) of this section, and the amount to which every county and
municipality shall be entitled from the "all counties and
municipalities revenue fund" shall be determined in accordance
with subsection (g) of this section. After determining as set
forth in subsections (f) and (g) of this section the amount each county and municipality is entitled to receive from the
respective fund or funds, a warrant of the state auditor for
the sum due to such county or municipality shall issue and a
check drawn thereon making payment of such sum shall thereafter
be distributed to such county or municipality.
(f) The amount to which a coal-producing county is
entitled from the "county coal revenue fund" shall be
determined by: (1) Dividing the total amount of moneys in such
fund then available for distribution by the total number of
tons of coal mined in this state during the preceding quarter;
and (2) multiplying the quotient thus obtained by the number of
tons of coal removed from the ground in such county during the
preceding quarter.
(g) The amount to which each county and municipality is
entitled from the "all counties and municipalities revenue
fund" shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of
this subsection. For purposes of this subsection, "population"
means the population as determined by the most recent decennial
census taken under the authority of the United States:
(1) The treasurer shall first apportion the total amount
of moneys available in the "all counties and municipalities
revenue fund" by multiplying the total amount in such fund by
the percentage which the population of each county bears to the total population of the state. The amount thus apportioned for
each county is the county's "base share".
(2) Each county's "base share" shall then be subdivided
into two portions. One portion is determined by multiplying
the "base share" by that percentage which the total population
of all unincorporated areas within the county bears to the
total population of the county and the other portion is
determined by multiplying the "base share" by that percentage
which the total population of all municipalities within the
county bears to the total population of the county. The former
portion shall be paid to the county and the latter portion
shall be the "municipalities' portion" of the county's "base
share". The percentage of such latter portion to which each
municipality in the county is entitled shall be determined by
multiplying the total of such latter portion by the percentage
which the population of each municipality within the county
bears to the total population of all municipalities within the
county.
(h) Moneys distributed to any county or municipality under
the provisions of this section, from either or both special
funds, shall be deposited in the county or municipal general
fund and may be expended by the county commission or governing
body of the municipality for such purposes as the county commission or governing body shall determine to be in the best
interest of its respective county or municipality: Provided,
That in counties with population in excess of two hundred
thousand at least seventy-five percent of such funds received
from the county coal revenue fund shall be apportioned to, and
expended within the coal-producing area or areas of the county,
said coal-producing areas of each county to be determined
generally by the state tax commissioner: Provided, however,
That the moneys distributed to any county or municipality under
the provisions of this section shall not be budgeted for
personal services in an amount to exceed one fourth of the
total amount of such moneys.
(i) On or before the twenty-eighth day of March, one
thousand nine hundred eighty-six, and each twenty-eighth day of
March thereafter, each county commission or governing body of
a municipality receiving any such moneys shall submit to the
tax commissioner on forms provided by the tax commissioner a
special budget, detailing how such moneys are to be spent
during the subsequent fiscal year. Such budget shall be
followed in expending such moneys unless a subsequent budget is
approved by the state tax commissioner. All unexpended
balances remaining in the county or municipality general fund at the close of a fiscal year shall remain in the general fund
and may be expended by the county or municipality without
restriction.
(j) On or before the fifteenth day of December, one
thousand nine hundred eighty-six, and each fifteenth day of
December thereafter, the tax commissioner shall deliver to the
clerk of the Senate and the clerk of the House of Delegates a
consolidated report of such budgets, created by subsection (i)
of this section, for all county commissions and municipalities
as of the fifteenth day of July of the current year.
(k) The state tax commissioner shall retain for the
benefit of the state from the additional taxes on coal
collected the amount of thirty-five thousand dollars annually
as a fee for the administration of such additional tax by the
tax commissioner.