A BILL to amend and reenact section thirty-seven, article three, chapter five-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to requiring county boards of education to give preference to resident vendors and vendors employing state residents when purchasing commodities or printing .

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section thirty-seven, article three, chapter five-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

ARTICLE 3. PURCHASING DIVISION.

§5A-3-37. Preference for resident vendors; exceptions.

(a) Other provisions of this article notwithstanding, effective the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety, through the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, in any instance involving the purchase of construction services for the construction, repair or improvement of any buildings or portions thereof, where the total aggregate cost thereof, whether one or a series of contracts are awarded in completing the project, is estimated by the director to exceed the sum of fifty thousand dollars and where the director or any state department is required under the provisions of this article to make the purchase, construction, repair or improvement upon competitive bids, the successful bid shall be determined as provided in this section. Effective beginning the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-two, in any instance that a purchase of commodities or printing by the director or by a state department is required under the provisions of this article to be made upon competitive bids, the successful bid shall be determined as provided in this section. The secretary of the department of tax and revenue shall promulgate any rules and regulations necessary to: (i) Determine that vendors have met the residence requirements described in this section; (ii) establish the procedure for vendors to certify the residency requirements at the time of submitting their bids; (iii) establish a procedure to audit bids which make a claim for preference permitted by this section and to reject noncomplying bids; and (iv) otherwise accomplish the objectives of this section. In prescribing the rules and regulations, the secretary shall use a strict construction of the residence requirements set forth in this section. For purposes of this section, a successful bid shall be determined and accepted as follows:
(1) From an individual resident vendor who has resided in West Virginia continuously for the four years immediately preceding the date on which the bid is submitted or from a partnership, association, corporation resident vendor, or from a corporation nonresident vendor which has an affiliate or subsidiary which employs a minimum of one hundred state residents and which has maintained its headquarters or principal place of business within West Virginia continuously for four years immediately preceding the date on which the bid is submitted, if the vendor's bid does not exceed the lowest qualified bid from a nonresident vendor by more than two and one-half percent of the latter bid, and if the vendor has made written: Provided, That

claim for the preference at the time the bid was submitted: for purposes of this subdivision, any partnership, association or corporation resident vendor of this state, which does not meet the requirements of this subdivision solely because of the continuous four-year residence requirement, shall be considered to meet the requirement if at least eighty percent of the ownership interest of the resident vendor is held by another individual, partnership, association or corporation resident vendor who otherwise meets the requirements of this subdivision, including the continuous four-year residency requirement: Provided, however, That the secretary of the department of tax and revenue shall promulgate rules and regulations relating to attribution of ownership among several resident vendors for purposes of determining the eighty percent ownership requirement; or
(2) From a resident vendor, if, for purposes of producing or distributing the commodities or completing the project which is the subject of the vendor's bid and continuously over the entire term of the project, on average at least seventy-five percent of the vendor's employees are residents of West Virginia who have resided in the state continuously for the two immediately preceding years and the vendor's bid does not exceed the lowest qualified bid from a nonresident vendor by more than two and one-half percent of the latter bid, and if the vendor has certified the residency requirements of this subdivision and made written claim for the preference, at the time the bid was submitted; or
(3) From a nonresident vendor, which employs a minimum of one hundred state residents or a nonresident vendor which has an affiliate or subsidiary which maintains its headquarters or principle place of business within West Virginia and which employs a minimum of one hundred state residents, if, for purposes of producing or distributing the commodities or completing the project which is the subject of the vendor's bid and continuously over the entire term of the project, on average at least seventy-five percent of the vendor's employees or the vendor's affiliate's or subsidiary's employees are residents of West Virginia who have resided in the state continuously for the two immediately preceding years and the vendor's bid does not exceed the lowest qualified bid from a nonresident vendor by more than two and one-half percent of the latter bid, and if the vendor has certified the residency requirements of this subdivision and made written claim for the preference, at the time the bid was submitted; or
(4) From a vendor who meets either the requirements of both subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection or subdivisions (1) and (3) of this subsection, if the bid does not exceed the lowest qualified bid from a nonresident vendor by more than five percent of the latter bid, and if the vendor has certified the residency requirements above and made written claim for the preference at the time the bid was submitted.
(b) If the secretary of the department of tax and revenue determines under any audit procedure that a vendor who received a preference under this section fails to continue to meet the requirements for the preference at any time during the term of the project for which the preference was received the secretary may: (1) Reject the vendor's bid; or (2) assess a penalty against the vendor of not more than five percent of the vendor's bid on the project.

(c) Political subdivisions of the state including county boards of education may grant the same preferences to any vendor of this state who has made a written claim for the preference at the time a bid is submitted, but for . County boards of education shall grant the above preference to any vendor of this state that meets the requirements of this section. For the purposes of this subsection, in determining the lowest bid, any political subdivision shall exclude from the bid the amount of business occupation taxes which must be paid by a resident vendor to any municipality within the county comprising or located within the political subdivision as a result of being awarded the contract which is the object of the bid; in In the case of a bid received by a municipality, the municipality shall exclude only the business and occupation taxes as will be paid to the municipality: Provided, That prior to soliciting any competitive bids, any political subdivision may, by majority vote of all its members in a public meeting where all the votes are recorded, elect not to exclude from the bid the amount of business and occupation taxes as provided in this subsection.
(d) If any of the requirements or provisions set forth in this section jeopardize the receipt of federal funds, then the requirement or provisions are void and of no force and effect for that specific project.
(e) If any provision or clause of this section or application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity shall does not affect other provisions or applications of this section which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this section are severable.
(f) This section may be cited as the "Jobs for West Virginians Act of 1990".

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