COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 22

(By Delegate Nesbitt)


(Originating in the House Committee on Constitutional Revisions)

[March 4, 1996]


Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia, relating to authorizing the Legislature to issue and sell state bonds not exceeding the aggregate amount of five hundred fifty million dollars to be used for improvement and construction of state roads; numbering and designating such proposed amendment; and providing a summarized statement of the purpose of such proposed amendment.

Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of the members elected to each House agreeing thereto:
That the question of ratification or rejection of an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be submitted to the voters of the State at the next general election to be held in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-six, which proposed amendment is to read as follows:
SAFE ROADS AMENDMENT OF 1996.

(a) The Legislature shall have power to authorize the issuing and selling of state bonds not exceeding in the aggregate five hundred fifty million dollars. The proceeds of said bondshereby authorized to be issued and sold over a five year period in the following amounts:
(1) The first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety- seven, one hundred ten million dollars;
(2) The first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety- eight, one hundred ten million dollars;
(3) The first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety- nine, one hundred ten million dollars;
(4) The first day of July, two thousand, one hundred ten million dollars;
(5) The first day of July, two thousand one, one hundred ten million dollars.
Any bonds not issued under the provisions of subdivisions (1) through (4) of this subsection may be carried forward and issued in any subsequent year.
(b) The proceeds of the bonds shall be used and appropriated for the following purposes:
(1) Matching available federal funds for highway construction in this state; and
(2) General highway construction or improvements in each of the fifty-five counties.
(c) When a bond issue as aforesaid is authorized, the Legislature shall at the same time provide for the collection of an annual state tax sufficient to pay as it may accrue the interest on such bonds and the principal thereof within and not exceeding twenty-five years. Such tax shall be levied in any year only to the extent that the moneys in the state road fund irrevocably set aside and appropriated for and applied to thepayment of the interest on and the principal of said bonds becoming due and payable in such year are insufficient therefor. Any interest that accrues on the issued bonds prior to payment shall only be used for the purposes of the bonds.
Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of article eleven, chapter three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, such proposed amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment No. 3" and designated as the "Safe Roads Amendment of 1996" and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "To provide for the improvement and construction of safe roads in the state."