WEST virginia legislature
2020 regular session
Introduced
Senate Bill 142
By Senators Sypolt, Hamilton, Jeffries, Lindsay, Pitsenbarger, and Romano
[Introduced January 8, 2020; referred
to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development; and then to the
Committee on Finance]
A BILL to amend and reenact §7-7-6e of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to expanding the Coyote Control Program by providing for an assessment on breeding cows; providing an option for owners of breeding cows not to participate in the program; requiring notice; and setting forth a purpose.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 7. COMPENSATION OF ELECTED COUNTY OFFICIALS.
§7-7-6e. Collection of head tax on sheep and goats;
duties of county assessors and Commissioner of Agriculture; deposit of tax
collections; creation of special revenue fund; purposes. Coyote Control
Program; purpose; assessment on breeding age sheep, coats, and cows:
participation; notice.
(a) Coyotes are a continuing threat to owners of livestock throughout West Virginia. The best course of action, as recognized by professional wildlife biologists, has been the depopulation of potential or offending individual animals and family units on farms where they present problems to livestock. The West Virginia Integrated Predation Management Program, created in 1996 collaboratively with USDA Wildlife Services, was instrumental in reversing the decline in the goat and sheep industry within the state. With coyotes now occupying every county in the state, it is necessary to expand the Coyote Control Program statewide to include breeding age cows.
After June 30, 2005, it shall be the duty of (b) In order
to fund our ability to better protect the state’s livestock the county
assessor and his or her deputies of each county within the state, at the time
they are making assessments of the personal property within such county, to
assess and collect an assessment of $1 on all breeding age sheep and $1
on all breeding age goats, and $1 on
all breeding age cows: Provided, That payment of the assessment on
breeding age cows is voluntary at the option of the cow owner: Provided,
however, That a cow owner who chooses not to pay the assessment is not
eligible to participate in the Coyote Control Program.
(c) The
assessor collecting the assessment on breeding age sheep and goats shall be
allowed a commission of ten percent upon all such taxes moneys collected
and shall send the Commissioner of Agriculture 90 percent of such taxes so
the assessment collected, who shall deposit the same in a special
account in the state Treasury to be known as the “Integrated Predation
Management Fund.” Expenditures from the Fund shall be for the purposes set
forth in this section and are not authorized from collections but are to be
made only in accordance with appropriation by the Legislature and in accordance
with the provisions of §12-3-1 et seq. of this code and upon the fulfillment of
the provisions set forth in §11B-2-1 et seq. of this code. Provided,
That for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, expenditures are authorized from
collections rather than pursuant to an appropriation by the Legislature
(d) The money in the Fund shall be used by the Commissioner solely to enter into a cooperative service agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Wildlife Services (WS) to expand the Coyote Control Program statewide.
Any person who does not pay this assessment is not
eligible for the services provided by this cooperative agreement.
(e) Within 30 days of a cow owner’s election to participate in the Coyote Control Program, and prior to the placement of any control method on the land, the participating cow owner must provide written notice of his or her participation in the program to:
(1) Any landowner from whom the cow owner leases property to graze cattle and whose property may be affected by the cow owner’s participation in the program; and
(2) Any landowner of property adjacent to the property on which the Coyote Control Program will be implemented.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to expand the Coyote Control Program by providing for an assessment on breeding cows. The bill provides an option for owners of breeding cows not to participate in the program.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.