
H. B. 2795


(By Delegates Amores, Thompson,
Jenkins and Frederick)


[Introduced February 17, 1999; referred to the


Committee on Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact sections two and three, article two-
d, chapter five-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating to
increasing the allowable training costs for employees of
high technology companies payable under the West Virginia
Guaranteed Work Force Program; and adding definitions.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections two and three, article two-d, chapter five-b
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 2D. WEST VIRGINIA GUARANTEED WORK FORCE PROGRAM.
§5B-2D-2. Definitions.
(a) "GOCID" shall mean means the Governor's Office of
Community and Industrial Development;
(b) "Employer" shall mean means an individual, partnership,
corporation, or other legal entity that employs or plans to
employ skilled workers;
(c) "Retraining and job upgrade" shall mean means the
specialized training that is given to an identified level of
employees to enable them to advance to a higher level of
employment;
(d) "Program" shall mean means the West Virginia Guaranteed
Work Force Program established pursuant to section three;
(e) "Training" shall mean means custom-designed training
given to employees or prospective employees of new or expanding
businesses and industries within the state;
(f) "Training provider" shall mean means any persons, public
or private educational institutions, agencies, companies or other
entities that may be utilized for training or consultative
services for an employer.
(g) "Affiliate" means and includes all persons, as defined
in this section, which are affiliates of each other when either
directly or indirectly:
(1) One person controls or has the power to control the
other; or
(2) A third party or third parties control or have the power
to control two persons, the two thus being affiliates. In
determining whether concerns are independently owned and operated and whether or not an affiliation exists, consideration shall be
given to all appropriate factors, including common ownership,
common management and contractual relationships.
(h) "Business" means any person holding a valid current West
Virginia business registration certificate under article twelve-c
of this chapter engaging in business in this state.
(i) "Commercial computer property" means computer property
directly used in manufacturing.
(j) "Computer" means an electronic, magnetic, optical,
electrochemical, or other high speed data processing device the
primary end use function of which includes performing logical,
arithmetical, or data storage operations. The term "computer"
includes any data storage apparatus or communication apparatus
directly related to or operating in conjunction with such device.
The term "computer" includes any connected or directly related
device, equipment or apparatus which enables the computer to
store, retrieve or communicate computer programs, computer data
or the results of computer operations to or from a person,
another computer or another device. The term "computer"
includes, but is not limited to, personal computers, desk-top
computers, lap-top computers, palm-top computers, microcomputers,
mainframe computers, server computers and super computers, but
such term does not include an automated typewriter or typesetter,
a portable hand-held calculator or other similar device, any device that is excluded from the definition of a computer supply,
or any device with a processor, the function of which facilitates
some other end use operation, such as a household appliance or
motor vehicle.
(k) "Computer data" means any representation of knowledge,
facts, concepts, instruction, or other information computed,
classified, processed, transmitted, received, retrieved,
originated, stored, manifested, measured, detected, recorded,
reproduced, handled or utilized by a computer, computer network,
computer program or computer software, and may be in any medium,
including, but not limited to, computer printouts, microfilm,
microfiche, magnetic storage media, optical storage media, punch
paper tape or punch cards, or it may be stored internally in
read-only memory or random access memory of a computer or any
other peripheral device.
(l) "Computer network" means a set of connected devices and
communication facilities, including more than one computer, with
the capability to transmit computer data among such devices
through such communication facilities, and includes local area
networks.
(m) "Computer program" means an ordered set of computer data
representing instructions or statements, in a form readable by a
computer, which controls, directs, or otherwise influences the
functioning of a computer or computer network.
(n) "Computer property" means all computers, computer
software, computer data, computer networks, computer programs and
computer supplies, but does not include any printer, or other
peripheral devices connected to or operated by a computer, or any
manufacturing machinery controlled by a computer or any other
machine or device controlled by a computer which does not itself
constitute a computer or computer supply.
(o) "Computer software" means a set of computer programs,
procedures and associated documentation concerned with computer
data or with the operation of a computer, computer program or
computer network.
(p) "Computer supply" or "computer supplies" means punch
cards, paper tape, magnetic tape, magnetic disks or diskettes,
optical disks or diskettes, disk or diskette packs, modems,
computer input scanners, and any other tangible input,
transmission or storage medium used in connection with a
computer, a computer network, computer data, computer software or
a computer program. The term "computer supplies" also includes,
but is not limited to, computer work stations, computer monitors,
computer keyboards, computer mice, computer track balls and other
computer pointing devices, computer modems, computer central
processing units, computer hard disk drives, computer floppy disk
drives, computer tape drives, computer drum storage memory drives
and computer compact disk read only memory units (CD ROMS). The term "computer supplies" includes computer driven and controlled
printers or plotters for the printing of ordinary office
correspondence and similar documents. However, no printer or
printing press or other printing device used in the manufacture
of newspapers or other large volume printing operations may be
included as a computer supply for purposes of this article. The
term "computer supply" does not include any manufacturing
machinery controlled by a computer or any other machine or device
controlled by a computer which does not itself constitute a
computer or computer supply. The term "computer supplies"
includes computer driven and controlled fax machines or facsimile
machines that interface directly with a computer, but does not
include ordinary stand alone fax machines not interfaced with a
computer, notwithstanding the fact that such ordinary fax
machines may have memory features and other electronic or
cybernetic features similar to those found in a computer.
(q) "Corporation" includes any corporation, a joint-stock
company and any association or other organization which is
classified as a corporation under federal income tax law.
(r) "Directly used in manufacturing," in relation to
computer property directly used in manufacturing, means directly
used in West Virginia by a manufacturer or manufacturing service
provider in those activities or operations which constitute an
integral and essential part of the manufacturing activity, as contrasted with and distinguished from those activities or
operations which are simply incidental, convenient or remote to
the manufacturing activity.
(s) "Existing manufacturing facility" means a building which
at anytime during the twelve months preceding the month in which
manufacture of a high technology product begins was used by the
taxpayer, or by a related person, to manufacture tangible
personal property.
(t) "Full-time employee" means a permanent hourly employee
of an eligible taxpayer, who is a West Virginia domiciled
resident, and works in a new high technology product
manufacturing facility in this state, or in a new high technology
product line of an existing manufacturing facility in this state,
more than eighteen hundred hours during the entire twelve-month
period ending on the last day of the taxable year of the eligible
employer, whether these hours are hours worked at the
manufacturing facility, or include hours of employer paid
vacation leave or other employer paid leave. Full-time employee
does not include an employee who is a part-time, seasonal or
temporary employee.
(u) "Manufacturing facility" means any facility which is
used in the manufacturing of tangible personal property
(including processing resulting in a change in the condition of
such property).
(v) "Manufacturer" means a person engaged in the activity of
manufacturing in this state.
(w) "Manufacturing" means a systematic operation or
integrated series of systematic operations engaged in as a
business or segment of a business which transforms or converts
tangible personal property by physical, chemical or other means
into a different form, composition or character from that in
which it originally existed. Manufacturing includes software
development and software manufacturing. Manufacturing includes
the production or use of advanced or sophisticated devices in the
fields of electronics and computers which are commonly referred
to as "high tech" or " high technology". In no case does the
term "manufacturing" include the activities of building
construction, construction of other structures or facilities
affixed to or on realty, retailing or agriculture, food
processing or food manufacturing, the operation of any restaurant
or retail food preparation or sales operation, the production of
any natural resource, contract mining or any other activity of
severing, producing, processing or extracting any natural
resource. Manufacturing production begins with the arrival of raw
materials and ends when the property has reached that point where
no further chemical, physical or other changes are to be made to
the resultant property in the production process.
(x) "Manufacturing service provider" means a person engaged in a manufacturing activity who does not have legal title to or
any economic interest in the tangible personal property
transformed or converted by the manufacturing process, and who
engages in the manufacturing activity as a service to another
person.
(y) "New high technology" means the manufacture of a high
technology product in an existing manufacturing facility in this
state that first begins manufacturing the new high technology
product line after the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-nine.
(z) "New high technology product manufacturing facility"
means a building that is primarily used by the eligible taxpayer
to manufacture a high technology product that is first placed in
service and used for that purpose by the eligible taxpayer after
the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine.
If the facility was used by the taxpayer, or by a related person,
to manufacture tangible personal property at any time during the
twelve months preceding the month in which the facility is first
used by the taxpayer to manufacture a high technology product,
the building is not a new high technology product manufacturing
facility.
(aa) "New job" means a job at a new high technology product
manufacturing facility located in this state, or at a new high
technology product line at an existing manufacturing facility located in this state, which did not exist in this state with any
employer as of the first day of the second calendar month
preceding the calendar month in which the new high technology
product manufacturing facility begins to manufacture high
technology products, or in which the new high technology product
line begins to manufacture high technology products in an
existing manufacturing facility located in this state, that is
filled by a full-time employee of the eligible taxpayer.
(bb) "Partnership" means and includes a syndicate, group,
pool, joint venture or other unincorporated organization through
or by means of which any business, financial operation, or
venture is carried on, which is classified as a partnership for
federal income tax purposes for the taxable year.
(cc) "Partner" includes a member in a syndicate, group,
pool, joint venture or organization classified as a partnership
for federal income tax purposes for the taxable year.
(dd) "Part-time employee" means any employee who normally
works twenty hours or less per week.
(ee) "Person" means any natural person, individual, firm,
general partnership, limited partnership, trust, association,
corporation, joint venture, limited liability company, joint
stock company, this state or any subdivision, branch, department
or agency thereof, or any county or municipal government of this
state or any subdivision, branch, department or agency thereof, the government of the United States or any subdivision, branch,
department or agency thereof, any public or private corporation,
municipal corporation of this state, cooperative, estate, trust,
business trust, receiver, executor, administrator, any other
fiduciary, any representative appointed by order of any court or
otherwise acting on behalf of others, or any other group or
combination acting as a unit.
(ff) "Seasonal employee" means an employee who normally
works on a full-time basis less than five months in a year.
(gg) "Temporary employee" means an employee performing
services under a contractual arrangement with the employer of two
years or less duration.
§5B-2D-3. Training program.
The governor's office of community and industrial
development shall develop a business and industrial training
program, the purpose of which is to provide assistance for new or
expanding businesses for the training, retraining or upgrading of
the skills of potential employees. The program shall emphasize
employee training specifically designed to accommodate the needs
of individual employers. The program shall encourage the
expansion of existing businesses and industries within the state,
promote retention of businesses and industries within the state,
promote retention of existing jobs within the state, prevent
economic and industrial out-migration, and assist in the relocation of out-of-state businesses and industries in the
state. Under this program, the governor's office of community
and industrial development may pay up to one hundred percent or
one thousand dollars per employee, whichever is less, of
training costs of new employees in firms creating at least ten
jobs in a one-year period: Provided, That the governor's office
of community and industrial development may pay up to one hundred
percent or two thousand dollars per employee, whichever is less,
of training costs of new employees in high technology companies
which meet one of three criteria: (1) Are a manufacturer of
computer components; (2) are a developer of intellectual
property, also known as software; or (3) are manufacturers using
computers as an integral part of their manufacturing process.
Training assistance may also be provided to existing businesses
in cases in which training, retraining or upgrading services will
result in the retention of existing jobs or the creation of
additional jobs, or both: Provided, however, That the governor's
office of community and industrial development may pay up to one
hundred percent or one thousand dollars per employee, whichever
is less, for the training, retraining or upgrading: Provided
further, That the governor's office of community and industrial
development may pay up to one hundred percent or two thousand
dollars per employee, whichever is less, of training, retraining
or upgrading costs of employees in existing high technology companies which meet one of three criteria: (1) Are a
manufacturer of computer components; (2) are a developer of
intellectual property, also known as software; or (3) are
manufacturers using computers as an integral part of their
manufacturing process. Training costs associated with this
program will be paid directly by the training provider.
Provision of training services will depend upon the employer
meeting program requirements as set forth by the governor's
office of community and industrial development and this article.
The state of West Virginia guarantees if employer satisfaction is
not achieved, the governor's office of community and industrial
development will carefully review the effectiveness of the
recently completed training plan and program with the employer
and the training provider. After such review, if the governor's
office of community and industrial development determines it is
determined that the training program was inadequate to meet the
employer's specifications and satisfaction as originally agreed
to, then those employees so trained shall be are eligible for
retraining under the guarantee provision except when the training
program curriculum and/or provider were selected solely at the
discretion of the employer, then no such additional training
shall be considered or approved: Provided, That in no instance
may the cost of training and retraining an employee exceed two
thousand dollars.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to increase from $1000 to
$2000 the amount which may be expended for training of employees
in high technology businesses or companies under the West
Virginia Guaranteed Work Force Program.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the
present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.