SB735 HFIN AM
The Committee on Finance moves to amend the bill on page one,
following the enacting clause, by striking out the remainder of the
bill and inserting in lieu thereof the following:
"That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §11-13A-5b, to read as
follows:
"ARTICLE 13A. SEVERANCE TAXES.
§11-13A-5b. Additional dedication of severance taxes for counties
and municipalities.
(a) Effective the first day of July, two thousand eight, in
addition to all other dedications of tax provided by this article,
five percent of the tax annually generated from severance taxes
imposed by sections three, three-a, three-b, three-c and three-e of
this article is dedicated for the use and benefit of the counties
and municipalities from which those taxes were generated and shall
be distributed to each county and municipality as provided in this
section.
(b) The tax revenues dedicated under subsection (a) of this
section shall be transferred by the tax commissioner into a special
revenue fund to be administered by the development office,
designated the county severance revenue fund, which is hereby
created. The moneys of the fund shall be expended for the purposes
provided in this section. Any earnings or other return on the investment of the moneys in the fund shall be paid into the state
general revenue fund, but at the end of each fiscal year, the
moneys deposited into the fund shall not revert to the general
revenue fund but shall continue to be held in the fund for
expenditure during the ensuing fiscal year, except as provided in
subsection (h) of this section.
(c) The net proceeds in the county severance revenue fund,
after deduction of the administrative expenses described in this
section, shall be distributed annually as follows, subject to the
requirements of subsection (f) of this section:
(1) One half shall be allocated to the counties from which the
severance tax or taxes were derived based on relative adjusted
gross receipts of each of those taxes from those counties; and
(2) One half shall be allocated pro rata to the municipalities
within the counties described in subdivision (1) of this
subsection, the total portion of which, for the municipalities in
each such county, is determined by the relative adjusted gross
receipts of each of those taxes from those counties, based on each
municipality's population determined at the most recent United
States decennial census of population: Provided, That for each
allocation, when a municipality is physically located in two or
more counties, only that portion of its population residing in the
county from which the severance taxes are generated are located
shall be considered.
(d) Each year, prior to distribution, the development office
shall retain and expend such portion of the amount of the moneys
deposited in the county severance revenue fund determined by the
development office necessary to administer the distribution of
those moneys and other provisions of this section.
(e) The counties and municipalities receiving the
distributions described this section may expend those moneys only
for the purposes of infrastructure, recreation or senior services.
(f)(1) A county or a municipality may receive the allocations
described in subsection (c) of this section only upon meeting the
requirements of this subsection.
(2) Prior to receiving an allocation provided for a county
described in subsection (c) of this section, the county or the
municipality, as applicable, must submit a description of the
infrastructure, recreation or senior services project or program
upon which it intends to expend the allocation to the development
office, in the form and manner prescribed by the development
office, together with all other information required by the
development office. Upon the determination of the development
office that the project or program meets the requirements of
subsection (e) of this section, the allocation shall be
distributed.
(3) Not less than once each three years, or more often at the
discretion of the development office, the development office shall conduct an audit of each county or municipality that has received
an allocation under this section to determine whether the
allocation has been expended for the purposes described in
subsection (e) of this section. The expense of the audits shall be
paid from the county severance revenue fund.
(g)(1) In the event a county or municipality fails to
cooperatae with an audit described in subsection (f) of this
section, the development office shall withhold any further
allocations to be made under this section until the audit has been
completed.
(2) In the event the development office determines as the
result of an audit that a county or municipality failed to expend
its allocation for the purposes described in subsection (e) of this
section, the county or municipality shall refund the amount of the
allocation, or such portion of the allocation not expended for
those purposes, to the development office, which amount shall be
deposited into the county severance revenue fund. The development
office shall withhold any further allocations to be made under this
section until the amount has been refunded.
(h) Any amounts authorized by the provisions of this section
for allocation to a county or municipality that are not distributed
to the county or municipality for failure to meet the requirements
of this section or that are refunded pursuant to subsection (g) of
this section, shall, if not distributed to the county or municipality pursuant to the provisions of this section within five
years of the year in which the moneys first become available for
allocation or within five years of the date upon which the refund
is paid, be transferred and deposited into the state general
revenue fund and shall no longer be available for allocation or
distribution.".