Senate Bill No. 529
(By Senator Dittmar)
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[Introduced February 12, 1999; referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section forty-four-b, article two,
chapter twenty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to increasing
the fee for the bear damage stamp; and distributing fees
from bear damage stamps between the bear damage fund and the
law-enforcement section of the division of natural
resources.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section forty-four-b, article two, chapter twenty of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. WILDLIFE RESOURCES.
§20-2-44b. Bear damage stamp; distribution of fees; purposes, etc.
Any hunter licensed to hunt bear in this state shall in
addition to a hunting license of either Class A, or AB, in the
case of a resident, or C, E, EE, L, LL or M, in the case of a
nonresident, have a bear damage stamp which shall be issued by
the department of natural resources and which shall be sold at
places where hunting and fishing licenses are sold. The fee for
a bear damage stamp shall be four twenty dollars and all proceeds
from the sale of such the stamps shall be distributed as follows:
thirty percent shall be paid into credited to the bear damage
fund which shall be maintained by the department of natural
resources for the purposes of paying claims of property owners
for damages to real and personal property caused by acts of bear
and to cover the expense of hunting, capturing and removing
offending bear to remote areas and seventy percent shall be
credited to the division of natural resources law-enforcement
section.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to increase the cost of
the bear damage stamp and to distribute the proceeds thereof
between the bear damage fund and the Division of Natural Resources.
Strike-throughs indicate language which would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.)
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NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS
On page _____, section forty-four-b, line _____, by striking
out the word "twenty" and inserting in lieu thereof the word
"ten";
On page _____, section forty-four-b, lines _____ and _____,
by striking out the words "distributed as follows: thirty percent
shall be credited to" and inserting in lieu thereof the words
"paid into";
On page _____, section forty-four-b, lines _____ and _____,
after the word "bear" by striking out the words "and to cover"
and inserting in lieu thereof a comma and the words "of
covering";
On page _____, section forty-four-b, line _____, after the
word "and" by striking out the remainder of the paragraph and
inserting in lieu thereof the words "conducting investigations
into illegal bear hunting and other relevant violations of law."
And,
On page one, by striking out the title and substituting
therefor a new title, to read as follows:
Eng. Senate Bill No. 529--A Bill to amend and reenact
section forty-four-b, article two, chapter twenty of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
relating to increasing the fee for the bear damage stamp; and
authorizing additional purposes for use of bear damage fund.
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FINANCE COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS
On page _____, section forty-four-b, line _____, by striking
out the word "department" and inserting in lieu thereof the word
"division";
On page _____, section forty-four-b, line _____, by striking
out the words "shall be" and inserting in lieu thereof the word
"is";
And,
On page _____, section forty-four-b, line _____, by striking
out the word "department" and inserting in lieu thereof the word
"division".