COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2401
(By Delegates Stalnaker, Everson, Williams and Michael)
(Originating in the Committee on Finance)
[April 1, 1997]
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
the
distribution of dedicated coal severance taxes to counties
and municipalities; removing language requiring
appropriation of the taxes; continuing the county coal
revenue fund; renaming the all counties and municipalities
revenue fund as the all counties and municipalities coal
fund and continuing the fund; and removing the requirement
that counties fund a line item in the county budget at one
hundred percent of the preceding year's expenditure for the
line item from the county's general fund
prior to using the
county's share of the dedicated tax for the same general
purpose.
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;
special funds in counties and municipalities; 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 severing and preparing coal), 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 severed and prepared), against which the tax
imposed by section three of this article is measured as shown by
the gross proceeds derived from the sale thereof of the coal by the producer, multiplied by thirty-five one hundredths of one
percent. The tax imposed by this subsection shall be is in
addition to the tax imposed by section three of this article, and
this additional tax is hereinafter referred to 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 ten of the West Virginia
constitution. 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 in this section, 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 referred to 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 in this section.
(c) Such The additional tax on coal shall be due and
payable, reported and remitted as elsewhere provided in this
article for the tax imposed by said section three of this
article, and all of the enforcement and other provisions of this
article shall apply to such the 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 the additional
tax on coal to such the 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 the special fund known
as the county coal revenue fund established in state treasurer's
office by chapter one hundred sixty-two, acts of the Legislature,
regular session, one thousand nine hundred eighty-five, as
amended and reenacted in subsequent acts of the Legislature, is
hereby continued. In order to provide a procedure for the
distribution of the remaining twenty-five percent of the net
proceeds of such the 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" the special fund known as the
all counties and municipalities revenue fund established in state
treasurer's office by chapter one hundred sixty-two, acts of the
Legislature, regular session, one thousand nine hundred eighty- five, as amended and reenacted in subsequent acts of the
Legislature, is hereby redesignated as the "all counties and
municipalities coal revenue fund" and is hereby continued.
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 the net proceeds shall be
deposited in the "all counties and municipalities coal revenue
fund", from time to time, as such the proceeds are received by
the tax commissioner. The moneys in such the funds shall, after
appropriation thereof by the Legislature, be distributed to the
respective counties and municipalities entitled thereto to the
moneys 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 coal revenue fund"
shall be allocated among and distributed quarterly to the
counties and municipalities entitled thereto to the moneys by the
state treasurer in the manner hereinafter specified in this
section. 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 to the moneys 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 is
entitled from the "all counties and municipalities coal revenue
fund" shall be determined in accordance with subsection (g) of
this section. After determining as set forth in subsection (f)
and subsection (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
each county or municipality shall issue and a check drawn thereon
making payment of such sum amount shall thereafter be distributed
to each 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 the 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 the county during the
preceding quarter.
(g) The amount to which each county and municipality is
entitled from the "all counties and municipalities coal 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 coal
revenue fund" by multiplying the total amount in such the 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 is the
"municipalities' portion" of the county's "base share". The
percentage of such the latter portion to which each municipality
in the county is entitled shall be determined by multiplying the
total of such the 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) All counties and municipalities shall create a "coal
severance tax revenue fund" which shall be the depository for moneys distributed to any county or municipality under the
provisions of this section, from either or both special funds.
Moneys in such the "coal severance tax revenue funds" fund, in
compliance with subsection (i) of this section, may be expended
by the county commission or governing body of the municipality
for such public purposes as the county commission or governing
body shall determine to be in the best interest of the people 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 the 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 a line item
budgeted amount from the current levy estimated for a county
shall be funded at one hundred percent of the preceding year's
expenditure from the county general fund prior to the use of coal
severance tax revenue fund moneys for the same general purpose:
Provided further, Provided, however, That said the coal
severance tax revenue fund moneys shall not be budgeted for
personal services in an amount to exceed one fourth of the total
funds available in such fund.
(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 such revenue shall submit to the tax
commissioner on forms provided by the tax commissioner a special
budget, detailing how such revenue is to be spent during the
subsequent fiscal year. Such budget shall be followed in
expending such the revenue unless a subsequent budget is approved
by the state tax commissioner. All unexpended balances remaining
in said special coal severance tax revenue fund at the close of
a fiscal year shall be reappropriated to the budget of the county
commission or governing body for the subsequent fiscal year.
Such The reappropriation shall be entered as an amendment to the
new budget and submitted to the tax commissioner on or before the
fifteenth day of July of the current budget year.
(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 the special 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.