Senate Bill No. 175

(By Senator Mitchell)

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[Introduced February 19, 2001; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new article, designated article one-d, relating to the "Real Property Owners' Bill of Rights"; providing for legislative findings; providing the state has the burden of proof to prove alleged inflated property values in certain circumstances; and providing that real property owners' taxes may not be increased by more than five percent in a year.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new article, designated article one-d, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1D. REAL PROPERTY OWNERS BILL OF RIGHTS.
§11-1D-1. Legislative findings.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares that the process involved in the reassessment and reappraisal of real property for purposes of computing and imposing a tax on owners of real property in this state has, in recent years, presented some taxpayers with vastly inflated assessment increases from one year to the next, that facially do not appear to be fair or justifiable.
(b) The Legislature further finds that the current procedure for contesting proposed property valuations by owners cannot rightfully place the burden of proof on the owner to disprove a vastly inflated reappraisal valuation in cases when a reappraisal seeks to increase the value by more than twenty percent from one year to the next. In some cases, reappraisal valuations have increased so drastically, that they place an unacceptably onerous burden on taxpayers.
(c) Therefore, in accordance with the findings contained in this section, the Legislature declares its intention to provide for fundamental fairness in the reappraisal process to prevent abuses from occurring in the future.
§11-1D-2. Limitation in increased valuation.

Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, any valuation for tax purposes, resulting from a reappraisal of real property, that exceeds twenty percent of the previously assessed valuation of the property shall, upon the protest of the landowner to the county commission, place the burden of proof by clear and convincing evidence upon the state to demonstrate the reappraised assessment is accurate: Provided, That in the event any reappraisal amounts to a fifteen or more percent increase from the previous assessment, a taxpayer shall not be required to pay more than a five percent increase in taxes in the tax year from that of his or her previous obligation in the preceding year: Provided, however, That in the event any reappraisal evidences a decline in market value from a previous tax year, the taxpayer is entitled to a full proportionate reduction in taxes commensurate with the percentage of decline in market value.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create the Real Property Owners Bill of Rights. The bill sets forth legislative findings which find deficiencies in the current real property reappraisal process. The bill provides that under particular circumstances the state has the burden of proof to substantiate increases in assessed value upon a protest by a taxpayer. The bill also provides that no real property holders taxes can increase by more than five percent in a given year.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.