ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
For
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 549
(Senators Oliverio, McKenzie, Minear,
Unger, Hunter and Sprouse, original sponsors)
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[Passed March 12, 1999; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact sections two, four and five, article
twenty-four, chapter twenty-two of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
all relating to the small business environmental loan
program; providing a definition of pollution prevention;
providing loan conditions for projects that are at a minimum
seventy-five percent pollution prevention; and authorizing
the director to accept gifts, donations and contributions for the revolving loan account.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections two, four and five, article twenty-four,
chapter twenty-two of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted,
all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 24. SMALL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTAL LOAN PROGRAM.
§22-24-2. Definitions.
(a) "Authority" means the West Virginia economic development
authority established in article fifteen, chapter thirty-one of
this code.
(b) "Director" means the director of the West Virginia
division of environmental protection.
(c) "Division" means the West Virginia division of
environmental protection as established in article one of this
chapter.
(d)"Eligible borrower" means a small business as defined in
subsection (h) of this section that is required or needs to
conduct a qualifying environmental project as defined in
subsection (g) of this section. An eligible borrower also means
a small business that desires to refinance the remaining balance
of a debt that was incurred between the first day of January, one
thousand nine hundred ninety-two, and until two years after the effective date of this article, and that meets, or would have
met, at the time of the original loan application, the
requirements of this subsection. The refinancing option is not
available for applications received by the authority more than
three years after the effective date of this article. Funds
available for refinanced loans may not, at any time, exceed forty
percent of the total funds available plus the outstanding balance
of funded loans.
(e) "Environmental project" means:
(1) Any environmental equipment purchases and installations
of the equipment;
(2) Any associated transportation, technical or consulting
services for installation or modification of environmental
equipment;
(3) Any equipment, purchase and installation necessary to effect a process change that in the director's judgment yields
significant environmental benefits; or
(4) Any combination of subdivision subdivisions (1), (2) or (3) of this
subsection.
(f) "Pollution prevention" means the reduction or
elimination of pollutants at the source through process
modification, material substitution, in-process recycling,
reduction of raw material use or other source reduction or
elimination opportunities.
(f) (g) "Qualifying environmental project" means an
environmental project as described in subsection (e) of this
section that is to be undertaken at a location in West Virginia
and used for the purpose of:
(1) Effecting pollution elimination, minimization,
prevention, recycling or abatement measures;
(2) Improving conditions or operations environmentally or
substantially improving compliance with local, city, state,
interstate or federal rules, regulations or laws pertaining to
the environment and human health; or
(3) Purchasing equipment to establish environmental information, computing, consulting or laboratory services.
(g) (h) "Small business" means a business that:
(1) Is properly registered with the appropriate agencies to
do business in this state;
(2) Is actively conducting business in this state;
(3) Is current with all workers' compensation and
unemployment premiums and state taxes; and
(4) Employs less than fifty full-time employees as defined
in subsection (h) (i) of this section within the entire company,
business or corporation inside and outside this state.
(h) (i) "Total number of full-time employees" means all full- time employees, plus all part-time employees counted as full-time
employee equivalents, plus all full and part-time equivalent
employees providing any type of service by contract or by any
other arrangement.
§22-24-4. Loan conditions.
A loan made to an eligible borrower as provided by this
article shall:
(a) Have an interest rate not to exceed one half of the
federal prime interest rate, but in no case may the annual rate be less than four percent, Provided, That environmental loan
projects that have been determined by the director to be at a
minimum, seventy -five percent "pollution prevention", shall be
authorized an additional one half of one percent annual interest
rate reduction and the annual interest for these special
pollution prevention qualifying environmental projects may be as
low as three and one-half percent;
(b) Have repayment terms not to exceed ten years;
(c) Have collateral terms acceptable to the authority; and
(d) Be in an amount of not less than five thousand dollars
nor more than one hundred fifty thousand dollars; but in no case
may the amount exceed ninety percent of the cost of the project.
§22-24-5. Small business environmental revolving loan account.
(a) The small business environmental revolving loan account
is hereby established continued in the authority and will shall be made available
for environmental loans defined by this article for any type of
qualifying environmental project. Loans may be issued only
during the five-year period commencing on the effective date of
this article unless the time period is otherwise extended by the
Legislature. The administration of this loan program is authorized for one year beyond the last payment date for any
outstanding loan.
(b) The environmental revolving loan account shall be funded
by appropriations from the Legislature and, at the director's
discretion, by using portions of penalties and fines that are
collected from various sources, including violators that
economically benefited by noncompliance and the director is also
authorized to accept gifts, donations, contributions, bequests or
devises of money, security or property for deposit in the
account: Provided, That the maximum value of all active
outstanding loans, combined with funds in reserve at any time,
may not exceed five million dollars.
(c) Interest income from the small business environmental
loan program as well as appropriations from the Legislature shall
be used to defray the operating costs of the program, including,
but not limited to, administration, facilities, salaries and
travel. Any excess interest income shall be used to reestablish
the loan program to its maximum authorized limit of five million
dollars, with additional excesses returned to the state's general
revenue account. If interest income is not projected to provide the necessary operating funds for all aspects of the small
business environmental loan program for any one year, the
authority shall request the necessary funding in the annual
budget request.