Senate Bill No. 503
(By Senators Craigo, Dittmar and
Burdette, Mr. President)
____________
[Introduced February 21, 1994; referred to the Committee
on Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend article thirteen-a, chapter eleven of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
five-a, relating to dedicating ten percent of the oil and
gas severance tax for the benefit of counties and
municipalities.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article thirteen-a, chapter eleven of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section five-
a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 13A. SEVERANCE TAXES.
§11-13A-5a. Dedication of ten percent of oil and gas severance
tax for benefit of counties and municipalities; distribution
of major portion of such dedicated tax to oil and gas
producing counties; distribution of minor portion of such
dedicated tax to all counties and municipalities; reports
and rules; creation of special funds in office of state
treasurer; methods and formulae for distribution of such
dedicated tax; expenditure of funds by counties and
municipalities for public purposes.
(a) Effective the first day of July, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-five and thereafter, ten percent of the tax
attributable to severance of oil and gas imposed by section three
of this article is hereby dedicated for the use and benefit of
counties and municipalities within this state and shall be
distributed to such counties and municipalities as hereinafter
provided.
(b) Seventy-five percent of this dedicated tax shall, after
appropriation thereof by the Legislature, be distributed by the
state treasurer in the manner hereinafter specified, to the
various counties of this state in which the oil and gas upon
which this dedicated tax is imposed was located at the time it
was severed from the ground. Those counties are hereinafter in
this section referred to as the "oil and gas producing counties."
The remaining twenty-five percent of this dedicated tax on oil
and gas shall be distributed, after appropriation, among all the
counties and municipalities of this state in the manner
hereinafter specified.
(c) The tax commissioner is hereby granted plenary power and
authority to promulgate reasonable rules requiring the furnishing
by oil and gas producers of such additional information as may benecessary to compute the allocation required under the provisions
of subsection (f) of this section. The tax commissioner is also
hereby granted plenary power and authority to promulgate such
other reasonable rules as may be necessary to implement the
provisions of this section.
(d) In order to provide a procedure for the distribution of
seventy-five percent of such dedicated tax on oil and gas to such
oil and gas producing counties, there is hereby created in the
state treasurer's office a special fund to be known as the "Oil
and Gas Revenue Fund"; and in order to provide a procedure for
the distribution of the remaining twenty-five percent of such
dedicated tax on oil and gas to all counties and municipalities
of the state, without regard to oil and gas having been produced
therein, there is also hereby created in the state treasurer's
office a special fund to be known as the "All Counties and
Municipalities Revenue Fund."
Seventy-five percent of such dedicated tax on oil and gas
shall be deposited in the "County Oil and Gas Revenue Fund" and
twenty-five percent of such dedicated tax on oil and gas shall be
deposited in the "All Counties and Municipalities Revenue Fund,"
from time to time, as such proceeds are received by the tax
commissioner. The moneys in such funds shall, after
appropriation thereof by the Legislature, be distributed to the
respective counties and municipalities entitled thereto in the
manner set forth in subsection (e) of this section.
(e) The moneys in the "County Oil and Gas Revenue Fund" andthe moneys in the "All Counties and Municipalities Revenue Fund"
shall be allocated among and distributed annually to the counties
and municipalities entitled thereto by the state treasurer in the
manner hereinafter specified. On or before each distribution
date, the state treasurer shall determine the total amount of
moneys in each fund which will be available for distribution to
the respective counties and municipalities entitled thereto on
that distribution date. The amount to which an oil and gas
county is entitled from the "County Oil and Gas Revenue Fund"
shall be determined in accordance with subsection (f) of this
section, and the amount to which every county and municipality
shall be entitled from the "All Counties and Municipalities
Revenue Fund" shall be determined in accordance with subsection
(g) of this section. After determining as set forth in
subsection (f) and subsection (g) of this section the amount each
county and municipality is entitled to receive from the
respective fund or funds, a warrant of the state auditor for the
sum due to such county or municipality shall issue and a check
drawn thereon making payment of such sum shall thereafter be
distributed to each county or municipality.
(f) The amount to which an oil and gas-producing county is
entitled from the "County Oil and Gas Revenue Fund" shall be
determined by:
(1) Dividing the total amount of moneys in such fund then
available for distribution by the total volume of cubic feet of
gas, or barrels of oil extracted in this state during thepreceding quarter; and
(2) Multiplying the quotient thus obtained by the number of
cubic feet of gas and barrels of oil taken from the ground in
such county during the preceding quarter.
(g) The amount to which each county and municipality shall
be entitled from the "All Counties and Municipalities Revenue
Fund" shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of
this subsection. For purposes of this subsection "population"
shall mean the population as determined by the most recent
decennial census taken under the authority of the United States:
(1) The treasurer shall first apportion the total amount of
moneys available in the "All Counties and Municipalities Revenue
Fund" by multiplying the total amount in such fund by the
percentage which the population of each county bears to the total
population of the state. The amount thus apportioned for each
county shall be the county's "base share."
(2) Each county's "base share" shall then be subdivided into
two portions. One portion shall be determined by multiplying the
"base share" by that percentage which the total population of all
unincorporated areas within the county bears to the total
population of the county, and the other portion shall be
determined by multiplying the "base share" by that percentage
which the total population of all municipalities within the
county bears to the total population of the county. The former
portion shall be paid to the county and the latter portion shall
be the municipalities' portion of the county's "base share." Thepercentage of such latter portion to which each municipality in
the county is entitled shall be determined by multiplying the
total of such latter portion by the percentage which the
population of each municipality within the county bears to the
total population of all municipalities within the county.
(h) Moneys distributed to any county or municipality under
the provisions of this section may be expended by the county
commission or governing body of the municipality for such public
purposes as the county commission or governing body shall
determine to be in the best interest of the people of each
respective county or municipality.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to dedicate ten percent
of the oil and gas severance tax for the benefit of counties and
municipalities effective July 1, 1995.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.