H. B. 2401
(By Delegate Stalnaker, Everson, Williams and Michael)
[Introduced March 4, 1997; referred to the
Committee on Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section six, article thirteen-a,
chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
requirements for budgeting additional tax on severance,
extraction and production of coal.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section six, article thirteen-a, 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 13A. SEVERANCE TAXES.
§11-13A-6. Additional tax on the severance, extraction and
production of coal; dedication of additional tax
for benefit of counties and municipalities;
distribution of major portion of such additional tax to coal-producing counties; distribution of
minor portion of such additional tax to all
counties and municipalities; reports; rules;
creation of special funds in office of state
treasurer; method and formulas for distribution of
such additional tax; expenditure of funds by
counties and municipalities for public purposes;
special funds in counties and municipalities; and
requiring special county and municipal budgets and
reports thereon.
(a)
Additional coal severance tax. -- Upon every person
exercising the privilege of engaging or continuing within this
state in the business of severing coal, or preparing coal (or
both severing and preparing coal), for sale, profit or commercial
use, there is hereby imposed an additional severance tax, the
amount of which shall be equal to the value of the coal severed
or prepared (or both severed and prepared), against which the tax
imposed by section three of this article is measured as shown by
the gross proceeds derived from the sale thereof by the producer,
multiplied by thirty-five one hundredths of one percent. The tax
imposed by this subsection shall be in addition to the tax
imposed by section three of this article, and this additional tax
is hereinafter in this section referred to as the "additional tax on coal".
(b) This additional tax on coal is imposed pursuant to the
provisions of section six-a, article ten of the West Virginia
constitution. Seventy-five percent of the net proceeds of this
additional tax on coal shall, after appropriation thereof by the
Legislature, be distributed by the state treasurer in the manner
hereinafter specified, to the various counties of this state in
which the coal upon which this additional tax is imposed was
located at the time it was severed from the ground. Those
counties are hereinafter in this section referred to as the
"coal-producing counties". The remaining twenty-five percent of
the net proceeds of this additional tax on coal shall be
distributed, after appropriation, among all the counties and
municipalities of this state in the manner hereinafter specified.
(c)
Such The additional tax on coal shall be due and
payable, reported and remitted as elsewhere provided in this
article for the tax imposed by
said section three of this
article, and all of the enforcement and other provisions of this
article shall apply to
such the additional tax. In addition to
the reports and other information required under the provisions
of this article and the tonnage reports required to be filed
under the provisions of section seventy-seven, article two,
chapter twenty-two-a of this code, the tax commissioner is hereby granted plenary power and authority to promulgate reasonable
rules requiring the furnishing by producers of
such additional
information as may be necessary to compute the allocation
required under the provisions of subsection (f) of this section.
The tax commissioner is also hereby granted plenary power and
authority to promulgate
such other reasonable rules as may be
necessary to implement the provisions of this section:
Provided,
That notwithstanding any language contained in this code to the
contrary, the gross amount of additional tax on coal collected
under this article shall be paid over and distributed without the
application of any credits against the tax imposed by this
section.
(d) In order to provide a procedure for the distribution of
seventy-five percent of the net proceeds of
such the additional
tax on coal to
such the coal-producing counties, there is hereby
continued in the state treasurer's office the special fund known
as the "county coal revenue fund"; and in order to provide a
procedure for the distribution of the remaining twenty-five
percent of the net proceeds of
such the additional tax on coal to
all counties and municipalities of the state, without regard to
coal having been produced therein, there is also hereby continued
in the state treasurer's office the special fund known as the
"all counties and municipalities revenue fund".
Seventy-five percent of the net proceeds of
such the
additional tax on coal shall be deposited in the "county coal
revenue fund" and twenty-five percent of
such the net proceeds
shall be deposited in the "all counties and municipalities
revenue fund", from time to time, as
such the proceeds are
received by the tax commissioner. The moneys in
such the funds
shall, after appropriation thereof by the Legislature, be
distributed to the respective counties and municipalities
entitled thereto in the manner set forth in subsection (e) of
this section.
(e) The moneys in the "county coal revenue fund" and the
moneys in the "all counties and municipalities revenue fund"
shall be allocated among and distributed quarterly to the
counties and municipalities entitled thereto by the state
treasurer in the manner hereinafter specified. On or before each
distribution date, the state treasurer shall determine the total
amount of moneys in each fund which will be available for
distribution to the respective counties and municipalities
entitled thereto on that distribution date. The amount to which
a coal-producing county is entitled from the "county coal revenue
fund" shall be determined in accordance with subsection (f) of
this section, and the amount to which every county and
municipality shall be entitled from the "all counties and municipalities revenue fund" shall be determined in accordance
with subsection (g) of this section. After determining as set
forth in subsection (f) and subsection (g) of this section the
amount each county and municipality is entitled to receive from
the respective fund or funds, a warrant of the state auditor for
the sum due to
such each county or municipality shall issue and
a check drawn thereon making payment of
such the sum shall
thereafter be distributed to such county or municipality.
(f) The amount to which a coal-producing county is entitled
from the "county coal revenue fund" shall be determined by: (1)
Dividing the total amount of moneys in
such the fund then
available for distribution by the total number of tons of coal
mined in this state during the preceding quarter; and (2)
multiplying the quotient thus obtained by the number of tons of
coal removed from the ground in
such the county during the
preceding quarter.
(g) The amount to which each county and municipality is
entitled from the "all counties and municipalities revenue fund"
shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of this
subsection. For purposes of this subsection "population" means
the population as determined by the most recent decennial census
taken under the authority of the United States:
(1) The treasurer shall first apportion the total amount of moneys available in the "all counties and municipalities revenue
fund" by multiplying the total amount in
such the fund by the
percentage which the population of each county bears to the total
population of the state. The amount thus apportioned for each
county is the county's "base share".
(2) Each county's "base share" shall then be subdivided into
two portions. One portion is determined by multiplying the "base
share" by that percentage which the total population of all
unincorporated areas within the county bears to the total
population of the county, and the other portion is determined by
multiplying the "base share" by that percentage which the total
population of all municipalities within the county bears to the
total population of the county. The former portion shall be paid
to the county and the latter portion shall be the
"municipalities' portion" of the county's "base share". The
percentage of
such the latter portion to which each municipality
in the county is entitled shall be determined by multiplying the
total of
such the latter portion by the percentage which the
population of each municipality within the county bears to the
total population of all municipalities within the county.
(h) All counties and municipalities shall create a "coal
severance tax revenue fund" which shall be the depository for
moneys distributed to any county or municipality under the provisions of this section, from either or both special funds.
Moneys in
such the "coal severance tax revenue funds", in
compliance with subsection (i), may be expended by the county
commission or governing body of the municipality for such public
purposes as the county commission or governing body shall
determine to be in the best interest of the people of its
respective county or municipality:
Provided, That in counties
with population in excess of two hundred thousand at least
seventy-five percent of
such the funds received from the county
coal revenue fund shall be apportioned to, and expended within
the coal-producing area or areas of the county,
said the
coal-producing areas of each county to be determined generally by
the state tax commissioner:
Provided, however, That a line item
budgeted amount from the current levy estimated for a county
shall be funded at one hundred percent of the preceding year's
expenditure from the county general fund prior to the use of coal
severance tax revenue fund moneys for the same general purpose:
Provided, further however, That
said the coal severance tax
revenue fund moneys
shall may not be budgeted for personal
services in an amount to exceed one fourth of the total funds
available in
such the fund.
(i) On or before the twenty-eighth day of March, one
thousand nine hundred eighty-six, and each twenty-eighth day of March thereafter, each county commission or governing body of a
municipality receiving
such the revenue shall submit to the tax
commissioner on forms provided by the tax commissioner a special
budget, detailing how
such the revenue is to be spent during the
subsequent fiscal year.
Such the budget shall be followed in
expending
such this revenue unless a subsequent budget is
approved by the state tax commissioner. All unexpended balances
remaining in
said the special fund at the close of a fiscal year
shall be reappropriated to the budget for the subsequent fiscal
year.
Such Th3e e reappropriation shall be entered as an amendment
to the new budget and submitted to the tax commissioner on or
before the fifteenth day of July of the current budget year.
(j) On or before the fifteenth day of December, one thousand
nine hundred eighty-six, and each fifteenth day of December
thereafter, the tax commissioner shall deliver to the clerk of
the Senate and the clerk of the House of Delegates a consolidated
report of the special budgets, created by subsection (i) of this
section, for all county commissions and municipalities as of the
fifteenth day of July of the current year.
(k) The state tax commissioner shall retain for the benefit
of the state from the additional taxes on coal collected the
amount of thirty-five thousand dollars annually as a fee for the
administration of such additional tax by the tax commissioner.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to remove the requirement
in present law that any line item be funded 100 percent of the
preceding year's expenditure before budgeting coal severance tax
revenue for this item.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.