Senate Bill No. 662
(By Senators McCabe, Browning, Green, Wells, Williams and
Stollings)
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[Introduced February 22, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §5B-4-1, §5B-4-2,
§5B-4-3 and §5B-4-4, all relating to providing funds for the
Tamarack Foundation that will allow it to sustain itself as a
private entity; providing benchmarks in order to qualify for
future funding; and requiring reporting to the Governor and
the Joint Committee on Government and Finance by Tamarack
Foundation in order to determine whether the purposes of the
bill are being achieved.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article designated, §5B-4-1, §5B-4-2, §5B-4-
3 and §5B-4-4, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. FUNDING FOR TAMARACK FOUNDATION.
§5B-4-1. Legislative findings, purposes and intent.
The Legislature finds and declares that:
(1) The Tamarack Foundation has created a positive image
focusing on the best of West Virginia;
(2) The Tamarack Foundation has created hundreds of jobs and
contributed millions of dollars to the state over the past decade;
(3) The Tamarack Foundation is a valuable resource for West
Virginia that has created a creditable model of an incubator for
small business focusing on the artisan community;
(4) The Tamarack Foundation has provided a marketplace for more
than three thousand state artisans, generated more than $4 million
in sales taxes and had sales in excess of $86 million;
and
(5) It is in the best interest of the State of West Virginia
to provide funding to the Tamarack Foundation in order to begin the
process of transforming the Tamarack Foundation into a self
sustaining private entity.
§5B-4-2. Funding of the Tamarack Foundation.
(a) The state shall provide the Tamarack Foundation with
$250,000 for fiscal year 2011 for the purposes of enabling the
Tamarack Foundation to become a self sustaining private entity.
(b)
The state shall provide the Tamarack Foundation with
$200,000 for fiscal year 2012 for the purposes of enabling the
Tamarack Foundation to become a self sustaining private entity.
(c) The state shall provide the Tamarack Foundation with
$150,000 for fiscal year 2013 for the purposes of enabling the
Tamarack Foundation to become a self sustaining private entity.
(d) The state shall provide the Tamarack Foundation
with
$100,000 for fiscal year 2014 for the purposes of enabling the
Tamarack Foundation to become a self sustaining private entity.
(e)
The state shall provide the Tamarack Foundation
with
$50,000 for fiscal year 2015 for the purposes of enabling the
Tamarack Foundation to become a self sustaining private entity.
(f) The Executive Director of
the Tamarack Foundation
shall
record all expenses paid by state funds and shall provide a monthly
report of expenses to the Secretary of the Department of Commerce.
§5B-4-3. Benchmarks to be reached for Tamarack Funding.
(a) The Tamarack Foundation shall demonstrate to the Secretary
of the Department of Commerce that sufficient progress has been made
on certain benchmarks that the Secretary of the Department of
Commerce has provided prior to receiving the funding in subsections
(b) through (e) of section two of this article
.
§5B-4-4.
Report of Tamarack Foundation to the Joint Committee on
Government & Finance and the Governor.
The Tamarack Foundation shall report to the Joint Committee on
Government and Finance and the Governor on February 1, 2012, and
each year after that for so long as the Tamarack Foundation receives
funding under this article. In the report, the Tamarack Foundation
shall outline the usage of the funding and shall report on how the
Tamarack Foundation is progressing in its ability to become a self-
sustaining private entity.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide funding for the
Tamarack Foundation so that it can sustain itself as a private
entity. The Tamarack Foundation will be required to meet certain
benchmarks in order for it to receive future funding.
This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.