H. B. 2810


(By Delegates Walters, Wright, Poling,

Boggs, Ashley, Paxton and Pethtel)


[Introduced March 9, 2001 ; referred to the

Committee on Finance.]




A BILL to amend article one, chapter eleven of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section one-a, relating to the economic fairness act of two thousand one; and requiring the tax commissioner to refund to the five counties with the highest unemployment twenty percent of the personal income tax collected.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article one, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section one-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. SUPERVISION.

§11-1-1a. The economic fairness act of 2001.
(a) It shall be the duty of the tax commissioner to designate the five counties that had the highest average unemployment during the previous three years and refund to those counties twenty percent of their personal income tax collections from the previous year: Provided, That the maximum refund to one county shall not exceed five hundred thousand dollars.
(b) The refunds provided for in subsection (a) of this section shall be paid to the general fund of the counties with the specific designation that the refunds be used for projects defined in section four, article fifteen, chapter thirty-one of this code.
(c) Each of the counties so designated shall submit to the West Virginia economic development authority an economic development plan which must first be approved by the authority before the refunds are released to the counties.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create the economic fairness act and encourage economic development in counties with high unemployment.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.