Senate Bill No. 286
(By Senators Manchin and Whitlow)
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[Introduced February 7, 1994; referred to the Committee
on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section thirty-three, article three,
chapter thirty-three of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
the allocation of proceeds of fire and casualty insurance to
volunteer fire departments.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section thirty-three, 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.
§33-3-33. Surcharge on fire and casualty insurance policies to
benefit volunteer and part volunteer fire departments;
special fund created; allocation of proceeds; effective
date.
(a) For the purpose of providing additional revenue for
volunteer and part volunteer fire departments, certain retiredteachers and the teachers retirement reserve fund, there is
hereby authorized and imposed on and after the first day of July,
one thousand nine hundred ninety-two, on the policyholder of any
fire and casualty insurance policy, a policy surcharge equal to
one percent of gross direct premium paid by the policyholder for
each such policy. 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. The policy surcharge shall not be subject to premium
taxes, agent commissions or any other assessment against
premiums.
The policy surcharge shall be collected and remitted by the
insurer to the commissioner on forms prescribed by the
commissioner on a quarterly basis and are due on the twenty-fifth
day of the month succeeding the end of the quarter in which they
are collected except for the fourth quarter for which the
surcharge shall be due and payable on or before the first day of
March of the succeeding year. All forms required by the
commissioner shall be submitted under the oath of the president
and secretary of the insurer.
Any insurer failing or refusing to collect and remit to the
commissioner any policy surcharge and whose surcharge payments
are not postmarked by the due dates for quarterly filing isliable for a civil penalty of up to one hundred dollars for each
day of delinquency, to be assessed by the commissioner. The
commissioner may suspend the insurer until all surcharge payments
and penalties, should any penalty be imposed, are remitted in
full to the commissioner.
All money from the policy surcharge shall be collected by
the commissioner and he or she shall disburse the money received
from the surcharge as follows:
(1) Fifty percent of the moneys collected shall be paid into
a special account in the state treasury, designated the fire
protection fund. The net proceeds of this portion of the tax
after appropriation by the Legislature shall be distributed in
accordance with the provisions of subsection (c) of this section.
(2) The remaining fifty percent of the moneys collected
shall be transferred to the teachers retirement system to be
disbursed according to the provisions of sections twenty-six-j,
twenty-six-k and twenty-six-
l, article seven-a, chapter eighteen of this code. Any balance
remaining after the disbursements authorized by this subdivision
have been paid shall be paid by the teachers retirement system
into the teachers retirement system reserve fund.
(b) Before the first day of September, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-three, and before the first day of September of
each calendar year thereafter The state treasurer shall allocate
and authorize for distribution on a quarterly basis the revenues
in the fire protection fund that were collected during thepreceding calendar year, and the interest earned thereon.
(c) Each volunteer fire company or department shall receive
on an equal share basis the revenues allocated for volunteer and
part volunteer fire companies and departments under subdivision
(1), subsection (a) of this section.
(d) The allocation, distribution and use of revenues
provided in the fire protection fund are subject to the
provisions of sections eight-a and eight-b, article fifteen,
chapter eight of this code.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide for the
allocation and distribution of insurance proceeds to volunteer
fire departments on a quarterly basis instead of annually.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.