Senate Bill No. 126

(By Senators Rowe, Sprouse and Mitchell)

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[Introduced January 10, 2002; referred to the Committee

on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section four, article one-c, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to authorizing county commissions to disallow a valuation of real property to increase by more than ten percent in a year unless good cause is shown of a compelling nature to allow such an increase.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section four, article one-c, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1C. FAIR AND EQUITABLE PROPERTY VALUATION.

§11-1C-4. Commission powers and duties; rule making.

(a) On or before the first day of October, one thousand nine hundred ninety, and thereafter as necessary the property valuation training and procedures commission shall perform the following duties:
(1) Devise training and certification criteria for county assessors and their employees and members of county commissions, which shall include a definition of "appropriate staff member" as the term is used in section six of this article relating to required training, which definition shall include deputy assessors as provided for in section three, article two of this chapter;
(2) Establish uniform, statewide procedures and methodologies for the mapping, visitation, identification and collection of information on the different species of property, which procedures and methodologies shall include reasonable requirements for visitation of property, including a requirement that a good faith effort be made to contact any owner of owner- occupied residential property: Provided, That the commission is not authorized to establish the methods to value real and personal property, but shall have the authority to approve such the methods;
(3) Develop an outline of items to be included in the county property valuation plan required in section seven of this article, which shall include information to assist the property valuation training and procedures commission in its determination of the distribution of state funds provided pursuant to section eight of this article.
(b) On or before the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-one, the commission shall establish objective criteria for the evaluation of the performance of the duties of county assessors and the tax commissioner.
(c) In the event the tax commissioner and a county assessor cannot agree on the content of the plan required under section seven of this article, the commission shall examine the plan and the objections of the tax commissioner and shall resolve the dispute on or before the first day of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the plan was submitted to the commission for resolution.
(d) The commission shall have the power to make such rules as it deems considers necessary to carry out the provisions of this section, which rules shall include procedures for the maintenance, use, sale and reproduction of microfilm, photography and tax maps. Any rules adopted by the commission prior to the first day of October, one thousand nine hundred ninety, under subsection (a) of this section are exempt from the provisions of article three of chapter twenty-nine-a of this code: Provided, That the commission shall file a copy of any rule so exempted from the provisions of chapter twenty-nine-a of this code with the legislative rule-making review committee created pursuant to section eleven, article three of said chapter prior to the thirtieth day of November, one thousand nine hundred ninety.
(e) The commission shall have the authority to make and enter into all contracts and agreements necessary or incidental to the performance of its duties and the execution of its powers under this article.
(f) In order to fund the costs of the requirements of this article, the valuation commission shall have the authority, on a one-time basis, to borrow five million dollars and to distribute such the funds according to need and the valuation plan submitted by the counties. Upon request of the valuation commission, the state board of investments shall loan, under commercially reasonable terms to be determined by the parties, up to five million dollars to the valuation commission, on a one-time basis, from one of the various funds administered by the state board of investments.
(g) The commission shall be required, in the event that the tax commissioner has failed to do so, to appoint one or more special assessors if it is the determination of the commission that an assessor has substantially failed to perform the duties required by sections seven and eight of this article. A writ of mandamus shall be the proper remedy if the commission fails to perform any of its duties required by law.
(h) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the commission is authorized to prohibit any reevaluation of real property that exceeds ten percent of the assessed value of the property as it existed in the previous year.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize county commissions to prohibit reevalutions of real property that exceed ten percent of the assessed value of the property that existed in the previous year.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.