Senate Bill No. 474

(By Senator Bowman)

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[Introduced March 24, 1997;

referred to the Committee on Finance.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section seven, article nine, chapter sixty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to authorizing and directing the infrastructure and jobs development council to amend and promulgate a legislative rule relating to the infrastructure and jobs development council funding rules.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section seven, article nine, chapter sixty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9. AUTHORIZATION FOR MISCELLANEOUS AGENCIES AND BOARDS TO PROMULGATE LEGISLATIVE RULES.

§64-9-7. Infrastructure and jobs development council.
The Legislature hereby authorizes and directs the infrastructure and jobs development council to amend and promulgate the legislative rules rule promulgated and final filed in the state register on the seventh ninth day of July May, one thousand nine hundred ninety-five ninety-six, under the authority of section four, article fifteen-a, chapter thirty-one of this code, modified by the infrastructure and jobs development council to meet the objections of the legislative rule-making review committee and refiled in the state register on the sixth day of December, one thousand nine hundred ninety-five, relating to the infrastructure and jobs development council (infrastructure and jobs development council funding rules, 167CSR1), are authorized, with the amendments amendment set forth below:
"On page ten, section five, subsection 5.7 5.7.1, by striking out '1 ½%' '1%' and inserting in lieu thereof '1%' '6/10%'.;
And,
On page eleven, section five, subsection 5.9, by striking out all of subsection 5.9 and inserting in lieu thereof the following: 'Terms of Grant. Where a project sponsor has received infrastructure grant money to fund a project and the project is thereafter sold, then to the extent that proceeds are available, the project sponsor shall reimburse the infrastructure fund the amount of the infrastructure grant. In the alternative, the council may allow repayment of the grant by converting the grant into a loan from the infrastructure fund. The proceeds from the repayment of any such grant or grant which has been converted to a loan shall retain their character as proceeds available for grants. The amount of repayment may be reduced by the applicable share of accumulated depreciation of the project or the applicable share of accumulated accelerated depreciation of the project as determined by the council. The infrastructure council shall review any agreement between the project sponsor and the person or entity purchasing the project to determine whether the agreement was structured so that no proceeds would become available for the repayment of the grant funds. If the infrastructure council finds that the transaction was structured by the parties to intentionally preclude the availability of proceeds for the repayment of the infrastructure grant funds, then the council may require the project sponsor to repay the full amount of any infrastructure grant. The council shall prepare a report listing those projects which received infrastructure grant money and are sold. The report shall include a description of the terms by which the infrastructure grant will be repaid. The report shall be provided on or before the tenth day of January each year to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance.'"

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is authorize the promulgation of a legislative rule which reduces from 1% to 6/10% the uniform percentage rate used in considering projects for infrastructure and jobs development grants.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.