Roads to Prosperity Amendment of 2017.

(a) The Legislature shall have power to authorize the issuing and selling of state bonds not exceeding in the aggregate $1.6 billion. The proceeds of said bonds are hereby authorized to be issued and sold over a four-year period in the following amounts:

(1) July 1, 2017, an amount not to exceed $800 million;

(2) July 1, 2018, an amount not to exceed $400 million;

(3) July 1, 2019, an amount not to exceed $200 million; and

(4) July 1, 2020, an amount not to exceed $200 million.

Any bonds not issued under the provisions of subdivisions (1) through (3), inclusive, of this subsection may be carried forward and issued in any subsequent year before July 1, 2021.

(b) The proceeds of the bonds shall be used and appropriated for the following purposes:

(1) Matching available federal funds for highway and bridge construction in this state; and

(2) General highway and secondary road and bridge construction or improvements in each of the fifty-five counties.

(c) When a bond issue as aforesaid is authorized, the Legislature shall at the same time provide for the collection of an annual state tax which shall be in a sufficient amount to pay the interest on such bonds and the principal thereof as such may accrue within and not exceeding twenty-five years, Such taxes shall be levied in any year only to the extent that the moneys in the state road fund irrevocably set aside and appropriated for and applied to the payment of the interest on and the principal of said bonds becoming due and payable in such year are insufficient therefor. Any interest that accrues on the issued bonds prior to payment shall only be used for the purposes of the bonds.

Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of article eleven, chapter three of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, such proposed amendment is hereby numbered “Amendment No. 1” and designated as the “Roads to Prosperity Amendment of 2017” and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: “To provide for the improvement and construction of safe roads in the state by the issuance of bonds not to exceed $1.6 billion in the aggregate to be paid for from the State Road Fund and the collection of annual state taxes as provided by the Legislature by general law.”