ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 350
(By Senators Tomblin, Mr. President, and Buckalew,
By Request of the Executive)
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[Passed April 4, 1997; in effect from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact section one, article one, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating generally to the
state tax division; increasing salary of tax commissioner;
eliminating requirement that commissioner's office be in
capitol building; and specifying effective date.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article one, chapter eleven of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. SUPERVISION.
§11-1-1. Office of tax commissioner continued and designated
the state tax division; appointment, term, oath,
bond and compensation of commissioner; powers and
duties generally; sections of division; assistant tax commissioner; assistant attorneys general to
assist commissioner.
(a) The office of the tax commissioner shall be continued in
all respects as heretofore constituted in the state government,
but is hereby designated as the state tax division of the
department of tax and revenue.
(b) The tax commissioner shall be the chief executive
officer of the state tax division and shall be appointed by the
governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to
serve at the will and pleasure of the governor for the term for
which the governor was elected and until a successor has been
appointed and has qualified.
(c) The tax commissioner, before entering upon the duties of
office, shall take the oath or affirmation prescribed by section
5, article IV of the constitution. The tax commissioner shall
give bond with good security, to be approved by the governor, in
the penalty of fifteen thousand dollars. The salary of the tax
commissioner shall be sixty-five thousand dollars a year or the
amount specified in section two-a, article seven, chapter six of
this code, whichever amount is greater. The tax commissioner
shall be repaid his or her actual disbursements for traveling
expenses. The tax commissioner shall be provided with an office
in the capitol and with furniture, office equipment and clerical
assistance as shall be necessary.
(d) The tax commissioner shall have control and supervision
of the state tax division and shall be responsible for the work
of each of its sections or other subunits. Each section or
bureau shall be headed by a director appointed by the tax
commissioner and who shall be responsible to the tax commissioner
for the work of his or her section or bureau. The tax
commissioner may create such sections or bureaus and employ staff
or employees as may be necessary to administer the state tax laws
for which the tax commissioner or tax division is responsible,
within the amount of expenditures appropriated for operation of
the tax division by the Legislature. The tax commissioner shall
have authority to appoint an assistant tax commissioner who shall
be his or her principal assistant. The powers and duties vested
in the tax commissioner by this chapter and any other provisions
of law may be delegated by the tax commissioner to the assistant
or other employees, but the tax commissioner shall be responsible
for all official acts of such delegates.
(e) The tax commissioner, if he or she deems such action
necessary, may request the attorney general to appoint assistant
attorneys general who shall perform duties as may be required by
the tax commissioner. The attorney general, in pursuance of such
request, may select and appoint assistant attorneys general, with
the consent of the tax commissioner, to serve during the will and
pleasure of the attorney general, and the assistants shall be paid out of any funds made available for that purpose by the
Legislature to the state tax division.