ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 573
(By Senators Rowe and McCabe)
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[Passed March 13, 2004; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §31-15-2 and §31-15-3 of the code of
West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to providing a
procedure for the economic development authority to address
employment and economic development problems of minority
populations of this state.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §31-15-2 and §31-15-3
of the code of West Virginia, 1931,
as amended, be amended and reenacted all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15. WEST VIRGINIA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY.
§31-15-2. Legislative findings.
It is hereby determined and declared as a matter of
legislative finding: (a) That unemployment exists in many areas of
the state and may well come about, from time to time, in other
areas of the state; (b) that in some areas of the state,
unemployment is a serious problem and has been for so long a period
of time that, without remedial measures, it may become so in other areas of the state; (c) that economic insecurity due to
unemployment is a serious menace to the health, safety, morals and
general welfare of the people of the entire state; (d) that
widespread industry unemployment produces indigency which falls
with crushing force upon all unemployed workers and ultimately upon
the state in the form of welfare and unemployment compensation; (e)
that the absence of employment and business opportunities for youth
is a serious threat to the strength and permanence of their faith
in our American political and economic institutions and the
philosophy of freedom on which those institutions are based; (f)
that lack of employment and business opportunities has resulted in
thousands of workers and their families leaving the state to find
such opportunities elsewhere and that this exodus has adversely
affected the tax base of counties and municipalities resulting in
an impairment of their financial ability to support education and
other local government services; (g) that security against
unemployment and the spread of indigency and economic stagnation
can best be provided by the promotion, attraction, stimulation,
rehabilitation and revitalization of commerce, tourism, industry
and manufacturing; (h) that the present and future health, safety,
morals, right to gainful employment and general welfare of the
people of the state require as a public purpose the promotion and
development of new and expanded coal and other energy production,
industrial, commercial, tourist and manufacturing enterprises within this state; (i) that the means and measures being authorized
for the financing of projects, including the insuring of loans or
other debt issued for working capital or the refinancing of
existing debt of an enterprise, are, as a matter of public policy,
for the public purposes of the several counties, municipalities and
the state; (j) that the device under which private community
industrial development organizations in the state acquire or build
industrial buildings or sites and equip the same with funds raised
through popular subscription, loans or otherwise for lease and sale
to new or expanding industries has proven effective in creating new
employment and business opportunities locally, is in accord with
the American tradition of community initiative and enterprise and
requires and deserves encouragement and support from the state as
a means toward alleviation of unemployment and economic distress;
(k) that community industrial development corporations in the state
have invested substantial funds in successful coal production,
industrial projects and are experiencing difficulty in undertaking
additional projects by reason of the partial inadequacy of their
own funds potentially available from local subscription sources and
by reason of limitations of local financial institutions in
providing additional and sufficiently sizable first deed of trust
or mortgage loans or letters of credit and other forms of credit
enhancement; (l) that minority business ownership, especially among
African-Americans in the area of Charleston, West Virginia, is proportionately less than minority business ownership nationwide
and statewide, the unemployment rate for African-Americans recently
has been about twice the unemployment rate for caucasians and
significantly higher in some counties with a greater concentration
of African-Americans and an urgent need exists to encourage
African-Americans and minority business ownership and higher
employment; (m) that an urgent need exists to stimulate a larger
flow of private investment funds from banks, investment houses,
insurance companies and other financial institutions into projects;
(n) that by increasing the number of projects presenting attractive
opportunities for private investment, a larger portion of the
private capital available in this state for investment can be put
to use for the general economic development of the state; (o) that
the availability of financial assistance through the creation of an
insurance fund will promote the economic development of the state;
and that it is in the public interest, in order to address the
needs aforesaid, that a state instrumentality be created as a
public body corporate with full powers to accept grants, gifts and
appropriations, to generate revenues, to borrow money and issue its
bonds, notes, commercial paper, other debt instruments and security
interests to the end that funds obtained thereby may be used to
furnish money and credit to approved industrial development
agencies or enterprises or to promote the establishment of new
projects or to retain existing projects.
§31-15-3. Purposes of article.
The purposes of this article shall be to provide for the
formation of a public economic development authority to promote,
assist, encourage and, in conjunction with such banking
corporations or institutions, trust companies, savings banks,
building and loan associations, insurance companies or related
corporations, partnerships, foundations, nonprofit organizations or
other institutions, to develop and advance the business prosperity
and economic welfare of the state of West Virginia; to encourage
and assist in the location of new business and industry; to
stimulate and assist in the expansion of all kinds of business
activity which will tend to promote the business development and
maintain the economic stability of this state, provide maximum
opportunities for employment, encourage thrift and improve the
standard of living of the citizens of this state; to cooperate and
act in conjunction with other organizations, public or private, the
objects of which are the promotion and advancement of industrial,
commercial, tourist or manufacturing developments in this state; to
borrow moneys and to issue its bonds, notes, commercial paper,
other debt instruments and security interests as well as creating
an insurance fund for credit enhancement purposes; to furnish money
and credit or credit enhancement to approved industrial development
agencies or enterprises in this state or for the promotion of new
projects or to retain existing projects or to financially assist projects by insuring bonds, notes, loans and other instruments,
including, but not limited to, the insuring of financing of working
capital or the refinancing of existing debt of an enterprise,
thereby establishing a source of credit and credit enhancement not
otherwise available; to review state procurement policies and
practices to assure that they meet federal and state requirements
and that they effectively encourage meaningful participation of
African-Americans and other minority persons in the process of
competing for and awarding of state contracts for goods and
services; to encourage the state to continue to support and expand
small business incubator programs, including the program at
institutions of higher education in the state; to encourage new and
minority small business development; to undertake initiatives to
encourage minority business ownership similar to those efforts used
to encourage greater rates of business ownership among women; to
assist community and economic development corporations to provide
effective technical and business advisory services to
minority-owned and -operated enterprises; to encourage industry,
banks and other private businesses to hire African-Americans and
other minority persons; to encourage governmental agencies and
bodies and businesses to be more aggressive in establishing
diversity-conscious practices as employers and for their
operations; to enlist traditional and nontraditional lending
institutions to be more creative and favorable to lending in minority communities and to minority persons, especially for
business enterprises; to encourage small business start-up and
expansion and provide funding to assist minority vendors to meet
bid bonding requirements; and to encourage workforce investment
boards to be accountable for educating poor and minority persons
for jobs better than low-paying service jobs. These purposes are
hereby declared to be public purposes for which public money may be
spent and are purposes which will promote the health, safety,
morals, right to gainful employment, business opportunities and
general welfare of the inhabitants of the state.