COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 406
(By Senators Craigo, Ross, Sharpe, Helmick, Wagner and
Schoonover)
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[Originating in the Committee on Finance;
reported February 21, 1996.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section six, article thirteen-a,
chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the additional
coal severance tax; dedication of the additional tax to the
counties and municipalities; required reports; promulgation of
rules; apportionment of funds to counties and municipalities;
requiring that counties and municipalities create a coal
severance tax revenue fund; removing requirement regarding
preceding years expenditures; and allowing tax commissioner to
retain an administrative fee.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section six, article thirteen-a, chapter eleven of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, be
amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 13A. SEVERANCE TAXES.
§11-13A-6.Additional tax on the severance, extraction and
production of coal; dedication of additional tax for
benefit of counties and municipalities; distribution of major portion of such additional tax to coal-
producing counties; distribution of minor portion of
such additional tax to all counties and
municipalities; reports; rules; creation of special
funds in office of state treasurer; method and
formulas for distribution of such additional tax;
expenditure of funds by counties and municipalities
for public purposes; special funds in counties and
municipalities; and requiring special county and
municipal budgets and reports thereon.
(a) Additional coal severance tax. -- Upon every person
exercising the privilege of engaging or continuing within this
state in the business of severing coal, or preparing coal (or both
severing and preparing coal), for sale, profit or commercial use,
there is hereby imposed an additional severance tax, the amount of
which shall be equal to the value of the coal severed or prepared
(or both severed and prepared), against which the tax imposed by
section three of this article is measured as shown by the gross
proceeds derived from the sale thereof of the coal by the producer,
multiplied by thirty-five one hundredths of one percent. The tax
imposed by this subsection shall be is in addition to the tax
imposed by section three of this article, and this additional tax
is hereinafter in this section referred to as the "additional tax
on coal".
(b) This additional tax on coal is imposed pursuant to the
provisions of section six-a, article ten of the West Virginia constitution. Seventy-five percent of the net proceeds of this
additional tax on coal shall, after appropriation thereof of the
proceeds by the Legislature, be distributed by the state treasurer
in the manner hereinafter specified in this section, to the various
counties of this state in which the coal upon which this additional
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 "coal-producing counties". The remaining twenty-five
percent of the net proceeds of this additional tax on coal shall be
distributed, after appropriation, among all the counties and
municipalities of this state in the manner hereinafter specified in
this section.
(c) Such The additional tax on coal shall be due and payable,
reported and remitted as elsewhere provided in this article for the
tax imposed by said section three of this article, and all of the
enforcement and other provisions of this article shall apply to
such the additional tax. In addition to the reports and other
information required under the provisions of this article and the
tonnage reports required to be filed under the provisions of
section seventy-seven, article two, chapter twenty-two-a of this
code, the tax commissioner is hereby granted plenary power and
authority to promulgate reasonable rules requiring the furnishing
by producers of such the additional information as may be necessary
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: Provided, That notwithstanding any language
contained in this code to the contrary, the gross amount of
additional tax on coal collected under this article shall be paid
over and distributed without the application of any credits against
the tax imposed by this section.
(d) In order to provide a procedure for the distribution of
seventy-five percent of the net proceeds of such the additional tax
on coal to such the coal-producing counties, there is hereby
continued in the state treasurer's office the special fund known as
the "county coal revenue fund"; and in order to provide a procedure
for the distribution of the remaining twenty-five percent of the
net proceeds of such the additional tax on coal to all counties and
municipalities of the state, without regard to coal having been
produced therein in the counties or municipalities, there is also
hereby continued in the state treasurer's office the special fund
known as the "all counties and municipalities revenue fund".
Seventy-five percent of the net proceeds of such the
additional tax on coal shall be deposited in the "county coal
revenue fund" and twenty-five percent of such the net proceeds
shall be deposited in the "all counties and municipalities revenue
fund", from time to time, as such the proceeds are received by the
tax commissioner. The moneys in such the funds shall, after
appropriation thereof of the funds by the Legislature, be
distributed to the respective counties and municipalities entitled
thereto to the funds in the manner set forth in subsection (e) of this section.
(e) The moneys in the "county coal revenue fund" and the
moneys in the "all counties and municipalities revenue fund" shall
be allocated among and distributed quarterly to the counties and
municipalities entitled thereto to the moneys by the state
treasurer in the manner hereinafter specified in this section. 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 to the moneys on that distribution
date. The amount to which a coal-producing county is entitled from
the "county coal 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 subsections (f) and (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 the county or municipality shall issue and a check drawn
thereon making payment of such that sum shall thereafter be
distributed to such the county or municipality.
(f) The amount to which a coal-producing county is entitled
from the "county coal revenue fund" shall be determined by: (1)
Dividing the total amount of moneys in such the fund then available
for distribution by the total number of tons of coal mined in this state during the preceding quarter; and (2) multiplying the
quotient thus obtained by the number of tons of coal removed from
the ground in such the county during the preceding quarter.
(g) The amount to which each county and municipality is
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" means 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 the 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 is the county's "base share".
(2) Each county's "base share" shall then be subdivided into
two portions. One portion is 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 is 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". The percentage of such the
latter portion to which each municipality in the county is entitled shall be determined by multiplying the total of such the 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) All counties and municipalities shall create a "coal
severance tax revenue fund" which shall be the depository for
moneys distributed to any county or municipality under the
provisions of this section, from either or both special funds.
Moneys in such "coal severance tax revenue funds", in compliance
with subsection (i) 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 of the
municipality shall determine to be in the best interest of the
people of its respective county or municipality: Provided, That in
counties with population in excess of two hundred thousand at least
seventy-five percent of such the funds received from the county
coal revenue fund shall be apportioned to, and expended within the
coal-producing area or areas of the county, said the coal-producing
areas of each county to be determined generally by the state tax
commissioner: Provided, however, That a line item budgeted amount
from the current levy estimated for a county shall be funded at one
hundred percent of the preceding year's expenditure from the county
general fund prior to the use of coal severance tax revenue fund
moneys for the same general purpose: Provided, further however,
That said the coal severance tax revenue fund moneys shall not be
budgeted for personal services in an amount to exceed one fourth of the total funds available in such the fund.
(i) On or before the twenty-eighth day of March, one thousand
nine hundred eighty-six, and each twenty-eighth day of March
thereafter, each county commission or governing body of a
municipality receiving such the revenue shall submit to the tax
commissioner on forms provided by the tax commissioner a special
budget, detailing how such the revenue is to be spent during the
subsequent fiscal year. Such The budget shall be followed in
expending such the revenue unless a subsequent budget is approved
by the state tax commissioner. All unexpended balances remaining
in said the special fund at the close of a fiscal year shall be
reappropriated to the budget for the subsequent fiscal year. Such
The reappropriation shall be entered as an amendment to the new
budget and submitted to the tax commissioner on or before the
fifteenth day of July of the current budget year.
(j) On or before the fifteenth day of December, one thousand
nine hundred eighty-six, and each fifteenth day of December
thereafter, the tax commissioner shall deliver to the clerk of the
Senate and the clerk of the House of Delegates a consolidated
report of the special budgets, created by subsection (i) of this
section, for all county commissions and municipalities as of the
fifteenth day of July of the current year.
(k) The state tax commissioner shall retain for the benefit of
the state from the additional taxes on coal collected the amount of
thirty-five thousand dollars annually as a fee for the
administration of such the additional tax by the tax commissioner.