Senate Bill No. 278
(By Senators Unger, Kessler, McCabe, Sprouse, Prezioso and
Rowe)
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[Introduced January 26, 2004; referred to the
Committee on
Economic Development.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §18B-3D-2 of the code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to the workforce
development initiative program; updating terms; and
requiring certain reporting to the legislative oversight
commission on workforce investment for economic development.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18B-3D-2 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3D. WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE.
§18B-3D-2. Workforce development initiative program created;
program administration.
(a) For the purposes of this article "Council" means the
council for community and economic development as defined in
section two, article two, chapter five-b of this code.
(b) There is hereby created under the council, a workforce
development initiative program to administer and oversee grants to community and technical colleges to achieve the purposes of
this article in accordance with legislative intent. The primary
responsibility of the council as it relates to the workforce
development initiative program is to administer the state fund
for community and technical college and workforce development
including setting criteria for grant applications, receiving
applications for grants, making determinations on distribution of
funds, and evaluating the performance of workforce development
initiatives.
(c) The council shall review and approve the expenditure of
all grant funds, including development of application criteria,
the review and selection of applicants for funding, and the
annual review and justification of applicants for grant renewal.
(1) To aid in decisionmaking, the council shall appoint an
advisory committee consisting of the vice chancellor for
community and technical colleges, the secretary of education and
the arts or a designee, the assistant state superintendent for
technical and adult education, the chair of the
joint commission
for vocational-technical-occupational education council for
community and technical college education, and the chair of the
human resource investment council West Virginia workforce
investment council. The advisory committee shall review all
applications for workforce development initiative grants and make
a report including recommendations for distributing grant funds
to the council. The advisory committee also shall make recommendations on methods to share among the community and
technical colleges any curricula developed as a result of a
workforce development initiative grant.
(2) When determining which grant proposals will be funded,
the council shall give special consideration to proposals by
community and technical colleges that involve businesses with
fewer than fifty employees.
(3) The council also shall weigh each proposal to avoid
awarding grants which will have the ultimate effect of providing
unfair advantage to employers new to the state who will be in
direct competition with established local businesses.
(d) The council may allocate a reasonable amount, not to
exceed five percent up to a maximum of fifty thousand dollars of
the funds available for grants on an annual basis, for general
program administration.
(e) The head of the council shall report to the legislative
oversight commission on
education accountability workforce
investment for economic development on the status of the
workforce development initiative program by the first day of
December,
one two thousand
nine hundred ninety-nine and four, and
annually thereafter by the first day of December.
(f) Moneys appropriated or otherwise available for the
workforce development initiative program shall be allocated by
line item to an appropriate account. Any moneys remaining in the
fund at the close of a fiscal year shall be carried forward for use in the next fiscal year.
(g) Nothing in this article requires a specific level of
appropriation by the Legislature.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to update the section
with the appropriate agency that administers the program and
requiring reporting to the Legislative Oversight on Workforce
Investment for Economic Development.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.
This is an interim bill that was proposed for introduction
in the 2004 Legislative Session by the Legislative Oversight
Commission on Workforce Investment for Economic Development.)