Senate Bill No. 362
(By Senator Unger)
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[Introduced January 29, 2007; referred to the Committee on
Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §11-13W-1 and
§11-13W-2; and to amend said code by adding thereto a new
section, designated §18B-10-7c, all relating generally to
incentives for the general education degree.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article, designated §11-13W-1 and
§11-13W-2; and that said code be amended by adding thereto a new
section, designated §18B-10-7c, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 11. TAXATION.
ARTICLE 13W. GED ASSISTANCE INCENTIVE TAX CREDIT.
§11-13W-1. Credit allowed; amount and duration of credit;
recapture of credit and effective date.
(a) There shall be allowed to eligible taxpayers a credit against the taxes imposed in articles twenty-one, twenty-three and
twenty-four of this chapter. For the purposes of this article,
"eligible taxpayer" means a person, firm, partnership, corporation
or other entity who enters a learning contract with an employee as
required for the tuition discount provided in section seven-c,
article ten, chapter eighteen-b of this code and allows an employee
a minimum of five hours per week paid release time to study for the
general education degree. Such credit shall be in an amount equal
to half of the employee's hourly salary for release time, up to a
maximum of one thousand two hundred fifty dollars. In the event an
eligible taxpayer enters into a learning contract and allows more
than one employee a minimum of five hours per week paid release
time to study for the general education degree, the credit allowed
shall be multiplied by the number of such employees.
(b) The credit set forth in this article shall apply to
personal income tax liabilities, corporation net income tax
liabilities and business franchise tax liabilities arising after
the thirty-first day of December, two thousand seven.
§11-13W-2. Application of credit; limitation of credit; Tax
Commissioner to promulgate forms and legislative
rule; notice of credit.
(a) The credit allowed in this article shall be first applied
to a taxpayer's business franchise tax liability, and then to
either the taxpayer's personal income tax liability or corporation net income tax liability, as the case may be.
(b) The credit allowed in this article shall not be
refundable, not carried forward nor backward to other tax years.
(c) The State Tax Commissioner shall promulgate legislative
rules pursuant to chapter twenty-nine-a of this code regarding the
applicability, method of claiming of the credit, recapture of the
credit and documentation necessary to claim the credit herein
allowed.
(d) The State Tax Commissioner shall develop a written notice
setting forth the availability of this credit and shall transmit
this notice to employers in the state.
CHAPTER 18B. HIGHER EDUCATION.
ARTICLE 10. FEES AND OTHER MONEY COLLECTED AT INSTITUTIONS OF
HIGHER EDUCATION.
§18B-10-7c. Tuition waivers for full-time employees who have
earned their GED.
(a) The governing boards shall make provision for institutions
under their respective jurisdictions to award a tuition discount
for undergraduate courses at state institutions of higher education
for eligible students, beginning with incoming freshmen in the
fall, two thousand seven, semester or term. For purposes of this
section an eligible student is a person who: (1) Has been out of
secondary school for at least three years; (2) has entered into a
learning contract with an adult education program and their employer and completed such learning contract; and (3) has earned
a GED within the preceding one-year period.
(b) The discount provided in this section shall be in the
amount of two hundred fifty dollars per semester for a maximum of
four semesters.
(c) Any award under this section is in addition to the number
of fee waivers permitted in sections five and six of this article
for undergraduate, graduate and professional schools.
(d) No student who is enrolled in an institution of higher
education as of the effective date of this section is eligible for
a tuition discount under the provisions of this section.
(e) Documentation of the learning contract required by this
section shall be maintained by the adult education program. The
adult education program shall submit a copy of the learning
contract within ten days of its execution to the employee, the
employer and the West Virginia Department of Education. The adult
education program shall retain the original contract for three
years following the employee's completion of the program. The
adult education program shall submit monthly attendance records to
the West Virginia Department of Education and the employer.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create incentives to
encourage West Virginia workers to obtain the GED and incentives to
encourage West Virginia employers to allow their employees to study
for and obtain a GED.
§11-13W-1, §11-13W-2 and §18B-10-7c are new; therefore,
strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.