Senate Bill No. 379
(By Senator Buckalew)
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[Introduced March 20, 1997; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section two-a, article nine, chapter
eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to funding of
criminal investigation division in the amount appropriated
by the Legislature out of bingo fees, charitable raffle fees
and charitable raffle board fees.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section two-a, article nine, 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 9. CRIMES AND PENALTIES.
§11-9-2a. Criminal investigation division established; funding
of same.
(a)
Criminal investigation division. -- A criminal investigation division consisting of no more than twelve
investigators, of which one investigator shall serve as division
director, plus necessary support staff, all of whom are exempt
from the classified service, is hereby established in the state
tax division for the purpose of assuring compliance with laws and
rules pertaining to the taxes, fees or credits administered under
article ten of this chapter, including, but not limited to, the
provisions of articles twenty, twenty-one and twenty-three,
chapter forty-seven of this code, but not including income taxes,
imposed on individuals by article twenty of this chapter.
(b)
Special audits division. -- A special audits division
consisting of no more than eight tax examiners, plus necessary
support staff, all of whom are covered by the classified service,
is hereby established in the auditing section of the state tax
division for purposes of assuring compliance with laws and rules
pertaining to taxes, fees or credits administered under article
ten of this chapter, including, but not limited to, the
provisions of articles twenty, twenty-one and twenty-three,
chapter forty-seven of this code, but not including income taxes
imposed on individuals by article twenty-one of this chapter.
(c) The Legislature hereby finds that the enforcement of the
laws and rules pertaining to the taxes, fees or credits
administered under article ten of this chapter, as such are applicable to persons whose residence or principal place of
business is outside of the state of West Virginia, requires
greater efforts and investigation than required for resident
persons subject thereto, and does further find that there is a
greater rate of noncompliance with said laws and rules by such
nonresident persons. Therefore, the criminal investigation
division and the special audits division created in subsections
(a) and (b) of this section are hereby directed to expend a
significant amount of their efforts to ensure compliance with the
laws and rules pertaining to taxes, fees or credits administered
under article ten of this chapter in accordance with the
authority provided in this section, by persons whose residence or
principal place of business is located outside the state of West
Virginia.
(d)
Deposits of certain fees. -- Charitable bingo fees
imposed by article twenty, chapter forty-seven of this code;
charitable raffle fees imposed by article twenty-one of said
chapter; and charitable raffle boards and games fees imposed by
article twenty-three of said chapter in an amount not to exceed
five hundred thousand dollars the amount appropriated by the
Legislature in any fiscal year shall be deposited in a special
revenue account established in the office of the treasurer.
to be
appropriated by the Legislature. The special revenue account shall be used to support compliance expenditures relating to the
establishment, operation, maintenance and support of the criminal
investigation division established in subsection (a) of this
section and the special audits division established in subsection
(b) of this section. Such expenditures may include, but shall
not be limited to, employee compensation, equipment, office
supplies and travel expenses. On the last day of each fiscal
year, unencumbered funds in the special revenue account in excess
of seventy-five thousand dollars shall be transferred to the
general revenue fund.
(e)
Investigators. -- Investigators employed in the criminal
investigation division shall have a background in accounting or
law enforcement or related fields pursuant to article twenty- nine, chapter thirty of this code, or its equivalent. Any
investigator so designated by the tax commissioner shall have all
the lawful powers delegated to members of the division of public
safety except the power to carry firearms and shall have the
authority to enforce the provisions of this article and the
criminal provisions of any other article of this code to which
this article applies, in any county or municipality of this
state. The tax commissioner shall establish such additional
standards as he or she considers applicable or necessary. Any
employee shall, before entering upon the discharge of his or her duties, execute a bond with security in the sum of three thousand
five hundred dollars, payable to the state of West Virginia,
conditioned for the faithful performance of the employee's duties
and the bond shall be approved as to form by the attorney general
and shall be filed with the secretary of state for preservation
in that office. The division of public safety, any county
sheriff or deputy sheriff and any municipal police officer upon
request by the tax commissioner is hereby authorized to assist
the tax commissioner in enforcing the provisions of this article
and any criminal penalty provision of any article of this code to
which this article applies.
(f)
Class A license plates. -- Notwithstanding the
provisions of article three, chapter seventeen-a of this code,
upon application by the tax commissioner and payment of fees, the
commissioner of motor vehicles shall issue a maximum of twenty
Class A license plates to be used on state owned or leased
vehicles assigned to investigators employed in the criminal
investigation division.
(g)
Reports. -- On the first day of July of each year,
beginning in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, the
tax commissioner shall present a written report to the joint
committee on government operations on the division's compliance
with the provisions of this section, including, but not limited to, activities of the divisions created by this section and
disbursement of funding.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to remove language in
the existing §11-9-2a relating to $500,000.00 being deposited in
a special revenue account established in the Office of the
Treasurer to fund the Criminal Investigation Division out of
bingo fees, charitable raffle fees and charitable raffle board
fees. It changes the specific amount of funding to "the amount
appropriated by the Legislature".
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.)