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 establish the Wireless Technology Business Property Valuation Act which provides for mandated salvage valuation for property tax purposes of tangible personal property directly used in certain wireless technology businesses. As written, this bill would set the personal property value of a tower used for the purpose of transmitting cellular or wireless signals for communications purposes at five percent of the original cost if the tower is (1) in a county of less than twenty thousand in population, and (2) within four miles of a four-lane highway which is either completed, under construction or designed and planned to be constructed. The bill also sets forth initial determination and protest and appeal provisions. The State Tax Department does not have sufficient information to determine how many towers will be designed or planned that will meet the criteria specified in the bill. However, application of the bill’s proposed valuation to existing towers will result in an reduction in local Property Tax revenues of roughly $100,000 per year. The reduction in State General Revenue would be minimal. Additional administrative costs to the State Tax Department associated with passage of this bill would not be overly significant. County assessors may incur some additional administrative costs attributable to passage of this bill.

Fiscal Note Detail

Effect of Proposal	Fiscal Year
Effect of Proposal	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, this bill would set the personal property value of a tower used for the purpose of transmitting cellular or wireless signals for communications purposes at five percent of the original cost if the tower is (1) in a county of less than twenty thousand in population, and (2) within four miles of a four-lane highway which is either completed, under construction or designed and planned to be constructed. The bill also sets forth initial determination and protest and appeal provisions. The State Tax Department does not have sufficient information to determine how many towers will be designed or planned that will meet the criteria specified in the bill. However, application of the bill’s proposed valuation to existing towers will result in an reduction in local Property Tax revenues of roughly $100,000 per year. The reduction in State General Revenue would be minimal. Additional administrative costs to the State Tax Department associated with passage of this bill would not be overly significant. County assessors may incur some additional administrative costs attributable to passage of this bill.

Memorandum

The stated purpose of this bill is to establish the Wireless Technology Business Property Valuation Act which provides for mandated salvage valuation for property tax purposes of tangible personal property directly used in certain wireless technology businesses. As written, the bill provides a procedure for a Taxpayer to file objections with the county assessor concerning valuations. However, the procedure outlined in the bill is inconsistent with similar valuation protest procedures as in W. Va. Code §11-3024a. One inconsistency, is that the proposed protest procedure in the bill omits the requirement that the Taxpayer be dissatisfied with the valuation of the property as a condition precedent to filing an objection. The proposed protest and appeal provision in the bill indicates that “any taxpayer may apply to the county assessor for information regarding the issue of whether any particular item or items of property constitute property directly used in a high-technology business or an Internet advertising business under this article which is subject to valuation in accordance with this article.”The terms “high-technology business” and “Internet advertising business” are not defined or otherwise referenced in the bill. Also, the bill appears to assume that cellular communications towers are locally assessed when in practice towers owned by cellular service providers are assessed by the Board of Public Works.

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