SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 7
(By Senators Bailey, Blatnik, Walker and Wagner)
[Introduced February 20, 1995;
referred to the Committee on Finance.]
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, amending section one, article ten thereof,
relating to taxation and finance; 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. Equal and uniform taxation.
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 species
of 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
real property owned, used and occupied by the owner thereof
exclusively for residential purposes, personal property used
exclusively for personal and noncommercial 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 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 units upon 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 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 "Reclassification of Noncommercial Personal Property
Amendment", and the purpose of the proposed amendment is as
follows: "To amend the State Constitution to permit
reclassification of noncommercial personal property from Class
III or IV to Class II for taxation purposes."
NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to provide that
personal property which is used exclusively for personal and
noncommercial purposes shall be taxed at a rate of one dollar on
each one hundred dollars of value instead of one and one-half
dollars or two dollars per one hundred dollars of value.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present Constitution, and underscoring indicates new
language that would be added.