H. B. 4649
(By Delegates C. White, Compton, Rowe, Yeager,
Fleischauer, Marshall and Houston)
[Introduced February 24, 2000; referred to the
Committee on Government Organization then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section six, article two-a, chapter
sixteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to deleting the
requirement that local health departments have to provide
matching funds in order to receive state funding.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section six, article two-a, chapter sixteen of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2A. ALTERNATIVE METHOD OF ORGANIZING LOCAL HEALTH
AGENCIES.
§16-2A-6. Levy for payment of county, municipal, combined boards
of health; collection, receipt and disposition of
funds by local boards of health.
The county commission of any county or the governing body of any municipality in which a county or municipal health officer is
appointed pursuant to the provisions of this article, shall have
the power and authority to provide funds for the payment of such
health officer and the expenses of his administration, and for that
purpose may levy a county or municipal tax, as the case may be, of
not exceeding three cents on each one hundred dollars' assessed
valuation of the taxable property in such county or municipality
according to the last assessment thereof.
Any county or municipality may, whether it has exercised the
power to lay the special levy hereinbefore provided for or not,
appropriate and expend money from the county or municipal general
fund for public health purposes and to pay the expenses of
operation and administration of a county or municipal board of
health and the public health facilities operated thereby or in
conjunction therewith.
Any county or municipality in which there is a board of health
created and maintained pursuant to the provisions of this article,
may accept, receive and receipt for money or property from any
federal, state or local governmental agency, or from any public or
private source, to be used for public health purposes, or for the
establishment or construction of public health facilities. The
state department of health is hereby authorized and empowered to
pay over and contribute to any board of health created and
maintained pursuant to the provisions of this article such sum or sums of money as may be available from funds included in
appropriations made for the state department of health for such
purpose. The amount of any such payment or contribution by the
state department of health to any such local board of health shall
be determined in accordance with regulations established by the
state board of health. Such regulations shall provide a fixed
formula for determining the amount of any payment or contribution,
and this formula shall be uniformly applied in determining the
amount of any payment or contribution to any such local board:
Provided, That notwithstanding any rule or regulation to the
contrary, the state department of health may not require any county
or municipality to provide matching funds in order to receive
funding.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, any
county, municipal or combined board of health, whether created and
maintained pursuant to the provisions of this article or article
two of this chapter, may assess and charge fees for permits and
licenses for the provision of public health services: Provided,
That no such fees may be assessed or charged pursuant to the
provisions of this section for permits and licenses required for
agricultural activities. Such fees shall be established by
regulation promulgated in accordance with the provisions of chapter
twenty-nine-a of the code, by the state board of health.
All moneys accepted by any county, municipality
municipal or combined board of health shall be deposited in the county or
municipal treasury, and unless otherwise prescribed by the
authority from which the money is received, shall be kept in
separate funds, designated according to the purposes for which the
money was made available, and held by the county or municipality in
trust for such purposes: Provided, That nothing contained in this
section shall be construed to conflict with the provisions of
section fifteen, article one, chapter sixteen of this code.
Expenditures from the county or municipal public health funds
established under this article shall be paid out by the county or
municipal treasurer upon submission of vouchers approved by the
county or municipal board of health and signed by the county or
municipal health officer.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to delete the requirement
that local health departments have to provide matching funds in
order to receive state funding.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.