Senate Bill No. 506
(By Senator Bowman)
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[Introduced February 11, 1999; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section four, article three, chapter
fifty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to reimbursement to
counties of costs incurred in housing magistrates when a
county's collection of costs and fees is less than the
actual costs incurred.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section four, article three, chapter fifty of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. COSTS, FINES AND RECORDS.
§50-3-4. Disposition of costs; magistrate court fund.
Except for the funds specified in section four-a of this
article, all costs collected in magistrate courts in a civil or criminal proceeding shall be submitted on or before the tenth day
of the month following the month of their collection to the
magistrate court clerk or, if there is no magistrate court clerk,
to the clerk of the circuit court along with such information as
may be required by the rules of the supreme court and by the
rules of the chief inspector of public offices. Such The clerk
shall pay costs into the special county fund hereafter created
during each fiscal year until there shall have been paid a sum
equal to twelve thousand five hundred dollars multiplied by the
number of magistrates authorized for such the county. All costs
collected in excess of such sum during a fiscal year shall be
paid to the state. All costs and fees collected by magistrates
on or after the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
seventy-six, shall be paid into said special county fund
hereinafter created.
There is hereby created in each county a special county fund
designated as the magistrate court fund. No moneys shall may be
appropriated from the fund except for the purposes provided for in this section. Any money remaining in the magistrate court
fund on the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred
seventy-nine, and on the thirtieth day of June of each year
thereafter, shall be paid to the state. In the event that the
total costs and fees collected by a county for any fiscal year is
less than the actual costs incurred by the county, then the
county, upon proper showing of the amount of its collections and
expenditures, is entitled to reimbursement from the state in an
amount equal to the difference between its collections and actual
costs incurred.
A county may, in accordance with the supervisory rules of
the supreme court of appeals, appropriate and spend from such
fund such sums as shall be are necessary to defray the expenses
of providing services to magistrate courts.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow reimbursement by
the state to counties of costs incurred in housing magistrates
when a county's collection of such costs and fees is less than
the actual costs incurred.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.