H. B. 4344
(By Delegates Walters, Clements,
Laird, Kominar and Hall)
[Introduced February 11, 1998; referred to the
Committee on Finance.]
A BILL to amend article one, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
by adding thereto a new section, designated section one-a,
relating to the economic fairness act of one thousand nine
hundred ninety-eight; and requiring the tax commissioner to
refund to the five counties with the highest unemployment
twenty percent of the personal income tax collected.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article one, 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
one-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. SUPERVISION.
§11-1-1a. The economic fairness act of 1998.
(a) It shall be the duty of the tax commissioner to designate the five counties that had the highest average
unemployment during the previous three years and refund to those
counties twenty percent of their personal income tax collections
from the previous year: Provided, That the maximum refund to one
county shall not exceed five hundred thousand dollars.
(b) The refunds provided for in subsection (a) of this
section shall be paid to the general fund of the counties with
the specific designation that the refunds be used for projects
defined in section four, article fifteen, chapter thirty-one of
this code.
(c) Each of the counties so designated shall submit to the
West Virginia economic development authority an economic
development plan which must first be approved by the authority
before the refunds are released to the counties.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create the economic
fairness act and encourage economic development in counties with
high unemployment.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.