HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 108
(By Delegate L. Smith)
[February 7, 2000; 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 finance and exempting military
pensions from income taxation; numbering and designating
such proposed amendment; and providing a summarized
statement of the purpose of such 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 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 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 be effective
unless at least sixty percent of the qualified voters shall favor
such increase, and such increase shall not continue for a longer
period than three years at any one time, and shall never exceed
by more than fifty percent the maximum rate herein provided 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 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. The Legislature shall have authority to tax
privileges, franchises, and incomes of persons and corporations except income from military pensions, 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 revenues as may be derived from such
tax may be appropriated as the Legislature may provide. After
the year nineteen hundred thirty-three, the rate of the state
tax upon property shall 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-three, as amended, such proposed
amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment No. 1" and designated as
the "Military Pension Income Tax Exemption Amendment," and the
purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "To
exempt military pensions from income taxation."
NOTE: The purpose of this resolution relates to amending the
Constitution to exempt military pensions from income taxation.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present constitution, and underscoring indicates new
language that would be added.