Senate Bill No. 276
(By Senator Minard)
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[Introduced March 4, 1993; referred to the Committee
on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section fourteen-d, article three,
chapter thirty-three of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
volunteer fire departments and the insurance tax.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section fourteen-d, article three, chapter thirty-three
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-
one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. LICENSING, FEES AND TAXATION OF INSURERS.
§33-3-14d. Additional fire and casualty insurance premium tax;
allocation of proceeds; effective date.
(a) For the purpose of providing additional revenue for
municipal policemen's and firemen's pension and relief funds and
the teachers retirement system reserve fund and for volunteer and
part volunteer fire companies and departments, there is hereby
levied and imposed, on and after the first day of January, one
thousand nine hundred eighty-two, an additional premium tax equalto one percent of gross direct premiums collected, less premiums
returned to policyholders because of cancellation of policies,
for fire insurance and casualty insurance policies. For purposes
of this section, casualty insurance shall not include insurance
on the life of a debtor pursuant to or in connection with a
specific loan or other credit transaction or insurance on a
debtor to provide indemnity for payments becoming due on a
specific loan or other credit transaction while the debtor is
disabled as defined in the policy. Except as otherwise provided
in this section, all provisions of this article relating to the
levy, imposition and collection of the regular premium tax are
applicable to the levy, imposition and collection of the
additional tax.
All moneys collected from this additional tax shall be
received by the commissioner and paid by him into a special
account in the state treasury, designated the municipal pensions
and protection fund. The net proceeds of this tax after
appropriation thereof by the Legislature shall be distributed in
accordance with the provisions of this section.
(b) Before the first day of August, one thousand nine
hundred eighty-three, and before the first day of August of each
calendar year thereafter, the treasurer of each municipality in
which a municipal policemen's or firemen's pension and relief
fund has been established shall report to the state treasurer the
average monthly number of members who worked at least one hundred
hours per month of municipal policemen's or firemen's pensionsystems during the preceding fiscal year. Before the first day
of August, one thousand nine hundred eighty-three, and before the
first day of August of each calendar year thereafter, the state
fire marshal shall report to the state treasurer the names and
addresses of all volunteer and part volunteer fire companies and
departments within the state which meet the eligibility
requirements established in section eight-a, article fifteen,
chapter eight of this code.
Before the first day of September, one thousand nine hundred
eighty-three, and before the first day of September of each
calendar year thereafter, the state treasurer shall allocate and
authorize for distribution the revenues in the municipal pensions
and protection fund which were collected during the preceding
calendar year for the purposes set forth in this section. Sixty-
five percent of the aforementioned revenues allocated shall be
allocated to municipal policemen's and firemen's pension and
relief funds; twenty-five percent of such allocated revenues
shall be allocated to volunteer and part volunteer fire companies
and departments, and ten percent of such allocated revenues shall
be allocated to the Teachers Retirement System Reserve Fund
created by section eighteen, article seven-a, chapter eighteen of
this code: Provided, That in any year the actuarial report
required by section twenty, article twenty-two, chapter eight of
this code indicates no actuarial deficiency in the municipal
policemen's or firemen's pension and relief fund, no revenues may
be allocated from the municipal pensions and protection fund tothat fund. The revenues from the municipal pensions and
protection fund shall then be allocated to all other pension
funds which have an actuarial deficiency.
(c) (1) Each municipal pension and relief fund shall have
allocated and authorized for distribution a pro rata share of the
revenues allocated to municipal policemen's and firemen's pension
and relief funds based upon the corresponding municipality's
average monthly number of members who worked at least one hundred
hours per month during the preceding fiscal year. All moneys
received by municipal pension and relief funds under this section
may be expended only for the purposes described in sections
sixteen through twenty-eight, article twenty-two, chapter eight
of this code.
(2) Each volunteer fire company or department shall receive
an equal share of the revenues allocated for volunteer and part
volunteer fire companies and departments. Each full time or part
time volunteer fire company or department shall submit an audited
financial statement when requesting funds from the proceeds of
the insurance tax.
(3) In addition to the share allocated and distributed in
accordance with subdivision (1) of this subsection, each
municipal fire department composed of full-time paid members and
volunteers and part volunteer fire companies and departments
shall receive a share equal to the share distributed to volunteer
fire companies under subdivision (2) of this subsection reduced
by an amount equal to such share multiplied by the ratio of thenumber of full-time paid fire department members who are also
members of a municipal firemen's pension system to the total
number of members of such fire department.
(d) The allocation and distribution of revenues provided for
in this section are subject to the provisions of section twenty,
article twenty-two, and sections eight-a and eight-b, article
fifteen, chapter eight of this code.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require volunteer fire
departments to submit an audited financial statement when
requesting funds from the insurance tax.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.