ENROLLED

H. B. 2012


(By Delegate Butcher)

[Passed March 9, 2002; in effect ninety days from passage .]





AN ACT to amend article seven, chapter seven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section seven-a, relating to prohibiting certain outgoing county officeholders from spending or obligating more than fifty percent of their budgets before the end of the calender year.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article seven, chapter seven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section seven-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7. TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR COUNTY EMPLOYEES, ETC.; COMPENSATION OF ELECTED COUNTY OFFICIALS; COUNTY ASSISTANTS, DEPUTIES AND EMPLOYEES, THEIR NUMBER AND COMPENSATION.

§7-7-7a. Limit of budget expenditures.
 (a) No county clerk, circuit clerk, joint clerk of the county commission and circuit court, if any, sheriff, county assessor or prosecuting attorney may, without the approval of the county commission, spend or obligate, before the end of the calendar year, more than fifty percent of the funds allocated for his or her office in the fiscal year budget, in any fiscal year where the person holding the office is leaving office due to either resignation or the results of an election.
(b) As used in subsection (a) of this section, "spend or obligate" includes, but is not limited to, increasing employee salaries to a level that would create a deficit in the budget if paid during the remainder of the fiscal year in addition to other anticipated expenditures.