FISCAL NOTE



FUND(S):

General Revenue Fund, Local Government Funds

Sources of Revenue:

General Fund,Other Fund Local Property tax revenu

Legislation creates:

Neither Program nor Fund



Fiscal Note Summary


Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.


The stated purpose of this bill is to require antique motor vehicles to be assigned an appraised value. The bill also requires the assessed value for all motor vehicles to be at least $420. As written, the bill’s primary changes are (1) setting the assessed value of motor vehicles to be the greater of 60 percent of the lowest value or 60 percent of $700 (currently the assessed value of vehicles is 60 percent of the lowest value), and (2) assigning an appraised value of $5,000, for purposes of ad valorem property taxes, to any vehicle that is registered as an antique vehicle and is not used for general transportation. According to our interpretation, increasing the minimum assessed value of any vehicle to $420 (60 percent of $700) would result in additional revenue, primarily for local governments, of roughly $500,000 per year. The State Tax Department does not have sufficient information to determine which vehicles are registered as an antique vehicle, however, if all vehicles more than 25 years old and currently appraised at more than $5,000 were reappraised with a value of $5,000, the reduction in revenue would be roughly $280,000 per year. The revenue reduction would be borne primary by local governments. Statewide, the aggregate net revenue impact would be an increase of roughly $220,000, with some counties experiencing a net increase in revenue and some counties experiencing a net reduction in revenue. The State Tax Department would incur additional administrative costs of $20,000 for programming changes attributable to passage of this bill. Additionally, county assessors would incur additional administrative costs attributable to passage of this bill to compile and maintain information on qualifying antique vehicles.



Fiscal Note Detail


Effect of Proposal Fiscal Year
2013
Increase/Decrease
(use"-")
2014
Increase/Decrease
(use"-")
Fiscal Year
(Upon Full
Implementation)
1. Estmated Total Cost 0 0 0
Personal Services 0 0 0
Current Expenses 0 0 0
Repairs and Alterations 0 0 0
Assets 0 0 0
Other 0 0 0
2. Estimated Total Revenues 0 0 0


Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):


As written, the bill’s primary changes are (1) setting the assessed value of motor vehicles to be the greater of 60 percent of the lowest value or 60 percent of $700 (currently the assessed value of vehicles is 60 percent of the lowest value), and (2) assigning an appraised value of $5,000, for purposes of ad valorem property taxes, to any vehicle that is registered as an antique vehicle and is not used for general transportation. According to our interpretation, increasing the minimum assessed value of any vehicle to $420 (60 percent of $700) would result in additional revenue, primarily for local governments, of roughly $500,000 per year. The State Tax Department does not have sufficient information to determine which vehicles are registered as an antique vehicle, however, if all vehicles more than 25 years old and currently appraised at more than $5,000 were reappraised with a value of $5,000, the reduction in revenue would be roughly $280,000 per year. The revenue reduction would be borne primary by local governments. Statewide, the aggregate net revenue impact would be an increase of roughly $220,000, with some counties experiencing a net increase in revenue and some counties experiencing a net reduction in revenue. The State Tax Department would incur additional administrative costs of $20,000 for programming changes attributable to passage of this bill. Additionally, county assessors would incur additional administrative costs attributable to passage of this bill to compile and maintain information on qualifying antique vehicles.



Memorandum


The stated purpose of this bill is to require antique motor vehicles to be assigned an appraised value. The bill also requires the assessed value for all motor vehicles to be at least $420. Title X, Section 1 of the W. Va. Constitution requires (1) taxation to be equal and uniform throughout the State, (2) property is taxed in proportion to its value, and (3) no one species of property which is taxed may be taxed higher than any other species of property of equal value. The proposed bill amends W. Va. Code §11-3c-5 requiring the assessed value of motor vehicles to be the greater of 60 percent of the lowest value or 60 percent of $700 . This provision potentially violates constitutional provisions (1) and (2) as set forth above. The proposed bill also assigns the value of $5,000 for all antique vehicles as defined in W. Va. Code §17A-10-3a, that is, vehicles more than 25 years old and owned solely as a collector’s item. This provision potentially violates all three of constitutional provisions set forth above.



    Person submitting Fiscal Note: Mark B. Muchow
    Email Address: Roger.D.Cox@wv.gov