HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 2
(By Delegate Linch)
[Introduced January 14, 1999; referred to the Committee on
Constitutional Revision then Finance.]
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, amending section one, article ten thereof,
relating to taxation and providing that the Legislature may
not tax the income of veterans received from military
retirement or military disability pensions; numbering and
designating the proposed amendment; and providing a
summarized statement of the purpose of the proposed
amendment.
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of
the members elected to each house agreeing thereto:
That the question of ratification or rejection of an
amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be
submitted to the voters of the State at the next general election
to be held in the year two thousand, which proposed amendment is
that section one, article ten thereof be amended and reenacted,
to read as follows:
ARTICLE X. TAXATION AND FINANCE.
§ 1. Taxation and finance.
Subject to the exceptions in this section, contained
taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the state. and
All property, both real and personal, shall be taxed in
proportion to its value to be ascertained as directed by law. No
one species of property from which a tax may be collected shall
may be taxed higher than any other species of property of equal
value; except that the aggregate of taxes assessed in any one
year upon personal property employed exclusively in agriculture,
including horticulture and grazing, products of agriculture as
above defined, including livestock, while owned by the producer,
and money, notes, bonds, bills and accounts receivable, stocks
and other similar intangible personal property shall may not
exceed fifty cents on each one hundred dollars of value thereon
and upon all property owned, used and occupied by the owner
thereof exclusively for residential purposes and upon farms
occupied and cultivated by their owners or bona fide tenants, one
dollar; and upon all other property situated outside of
municipalities, one dollar and fifty cents; and upon all other
property situated within municipalities, two dollars; and the
Legislature shall further provide by general law for increasing
the maximum rates, authorized to be fixed, by the different levying bodies upon all classes of property, by submitting the
question to the voters of the taxing units affected, but no
increase shall may be effective unless at least sixty percent of
the qualified voters shall favor such the increase, and such the
increase shall may not continue for a longer period than three
years at any one time, and shall may never exceed by more than
fifty percent the maximum rate herein provided in this section
and prescribed by law; and the revenue derived from this source
shall be apportioned by the Legislature among the levying units
of the state in proportion to the levy laid in said the units
upon real and other personal property; but property used for
educational, literary, scientific, religious or charitable
purposes, all cemeteries, public property, the personal property,
including livestock, employed exclusively in agriculture as above
defined and the products of agriculture as so defined while owned
by the producers may by law be exempted from taxation; household
goods to the value of two hundred dollars shall be exempted from
taxation.
Except as otherwise provided in this section, the
Legislature shall have has the authority to tax privileges,
franchises, and incomes of persons and corporations and to
classify and graduate the tax on all incomes according to the
amount thereof and to exempt from taxation, incomes below a minimum to be fixed from time to time, and such the revenues as
may be that are derived from such the tax may be appropriated as
the Legislature may provide provides. After the year nineteen
hundred thirty-three, The Legislature may not tax the income of
veterans received from military retirement or military disability
pensions.
The rate of the state tax upon property shall may not exceed
one cent upon the hundred dollars valuation, except to pay the
principal and interest of bonded indebtedness of the state now
existing.
Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of
article eleven, chapter three of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, such proposed
amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment No. 1" and designated as
the "Veterans' Income Protection Amendment" and the purpose of
the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "To amend the
Constitution of West Virginia to remove the authority of the
Legislature to tax the incomes of veterans received from military
retirement or military disability pensions."
NOTE: The purpose of this resolution relates to amending
the Constitution to remove the authority of the Legislature to
tax the incomes of veterans received from military retirement or
military disability pensions.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present Constitution, and underscoring indicates new
language that would be added.