HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 18
(By Delegate Keener)
[Introduced March 15, 2001; 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 decreasing the maximum levy rate on certain real property
situated within municipalities; 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 two, which proposed amendment is that section
one, article ten thereof, be amended 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 one dollar;
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 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 one thousand nine 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-one, as amended, such proposed
amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment No. 1" and designated as
the "Decreasing Levy on Real Property Within Municipalities
Amendment" and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized
as follows: "The purpose of this amendment is to decrease the
maximum levy on certain real property situated within
municipalities."
NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to decrease the
maximum levy on "other" real property situated within
municipalities from $2 to $1 on each $100 of value.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present Constitution, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.