HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 10
(By Delegate L. Smith)
[Introduced February 22, 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 taxation and finance and exempting military pensions from
income taxation; 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 and reenacted, 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; 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 except income from military
pensions, 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, 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 "Military Pension Income Tax Exemption Amendment," and the
purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "To
exempt military pensions from income taxation."
NOTE: The purpose of this resolution relates to amending the
Constitution to exempt military pensions from income taxation.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present constitution, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.