Senate Bill No. 478
(By Senators Yoder, Barnes and Unger)
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[Introduced February 7, 2007; referred to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §11-1C-9 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to providing for a ten-percent cap
on any increase in one year for periodic valuations and
assessments of real and personal property.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §11-1C-9 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1C. FAIR AND EQUITABLE PROPERTY VALUATION.
§11-1C-9. Periodic valuations.
(a) After completion of the initial valuation required under
section seven of this article, each Assessor shall maintain current
values on the real and personal property within the county. In
repeating three-year cycles, every parcel of real property shall be
visited by a member of the Assessor's staff who has been trained
pursuant to section six of this article to determine if any changes have occurred which would affect the valuation for the property.
With this information and information such as sales ratio studies
provided by the Tax Commissioner, the Assessor shall make
such
adjustments
as are necessary to maintain accurate, current
valuations of all the real and personal property in the county and
shall adjust the assessments accordingly.
(b)
In Any year
in which the assessed value of
a property or
species of property
be is less than or exceeds sixty percent of
the
current market value, the Tax Commissioner shall direct the
Assessor to make the necessary adjustments:
Provided, That in any
given year, increases in valuations may not result in more than a
ten percent increase in assessment. If any Assessor fails to
comply with the provisions of this section, the Tax Commissioner
may, at the county commission's expense, take reasonable steps to
remedy the assessment deficiencies.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide a ten percent
cap on any increase in assessment in any one year.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.