Senate Bill No. 277
(By Senators Snyder and Unger)
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[Introduced February 17, 2009; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §11-2-10, relating to
taxation; count assessors; requiring assessors to create a
cost of housing index to be filed annually with the Tax
Commissioner and Legislature; and contents of the index.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §11-2-10, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 2. ASSESSORS.
§11-2-10. Housing index to be filed with Tax Commissioner and
Legislature annually.
(a) The Tax Commissioner shall establish a form on which
county assessors shall report a housing index containing the
average cost of residential housing or real property in the
respective counties. The commissioner shall create a housing index
which contains the cost of all residential housing in the state arranged from the most expensive county to the least expensive
county. The commissioner shall annually create an index multiplier
which when multiplied by the housing costs of the least expensive
county will equal the housing cost of the most expensive county.
(b) The Tax Commissioner shall then prepare an annual report
to the Legislature of the information containing the average
housing cost of each county arranged from the most expensive to the
least expensive and containing the index multiplier determined as
set forth in subsection (a) of this section. The report from the
commissioner to the Legislature shall also contain information
relating the median cost of residential housing in the state,
county by county, indicating whether the average cost of
residential housing in a county is either above or below the median
cost for the entire state. The report shall contain a table that
indicates the average cost of housing in the state and indicates
with a plus or minus multiplier the average cost of housing in each
county, as they fall into comparison to the statewide average cost
of housing with a multiplier calculated in relation to the average
value.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require county assessors
to create a cost of housing index to be filed annually with the Tax
Commissioner and for the Tax Commissioner to annually file a report
with the Legislature containing information indicating the average
cost of residential housing in each county and how the costs
compare on a county by county basis.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.