Senate Bill No. 10
(By Senator Jenkins)
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[Introduced January 13, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §17-2A-8 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the transfer and credit of
surplus cash balances between funds administered by the
Commissioner of Highways.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §17-2A-8 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2A. WEST VIRGINIA COMMISSIONER OF HIGHWAYS.
§17-2A-8. Powers, duties and responsibilities of commissioner.
In addition to all other duties, powers and responsibilities
given and assigned to the commissioner in this chapter, the
commissioner may:
(1) Exercise general supervision over the state road program
and the construction, reconstruction, repair and maintenance of
state roads and highways;
(2) Determine the various methods of road construction best
adapted to the various sections and areas of the state and
establish standards for the construction and maintenance of roads
and highways in the various sections and areas of the state;
(3) Conduct investigations and experiments, hold hearings and
public meetings and attend and participate in meetings and
conferences within and without the state for purposes of acquiring
information, making findings and determining courses of action and
procedure relative to advancement and improvement of the state road
and highway system;
(4) Enter private lands to make inspections and surveys for
road and highway purposes;
(5) Acquire, in name of the
department division, by lease,
grant, right of eminent domain or other lawful means all lands and
interests and rights in lands necessary and required for roads,
rights-of-way, cuts, fills, drains, storage for equipment and
materials and road construction and maintenance in general;
(6) Procure photostatic copies of any
or all public records on
file at the state Capitol of Virginia which may be considered
necessary or proper in ascertaining the location and legal status
of public road rights-of-way located or established in what is now
the State of West Virginia, which when certified by the
commissioner, may be admitted in evidence, in lieu of the original,
in any of the courts of this state;
(7) Plan for and hold annually a school of good roads, of not less than three or more than six days' duration, for instruction of
his or her employees, which is held in conjunction with West
Virginia University and may be held at the university or at any
other suitable place in the state;
(8) Negotiate and enter in reciprocal contracts and agreements
with proper authorities of other states and of the United States
relating to and regulating the use of roads and highways with
reference to weights and types of vehicles, registration of
vehicles and licensing of operators, military and emergency
movements of personnel and supplies and all other matters of
interstate or national interest;
(9) Classify and reclassify, locate and relocate, expressway,
trunkline, feeder and state local service roads and designate by
number the routes within the state road system;
(10) Create, extend or establish, upon petition of any
interested party or parties or on the commissioner's own
initiative, any new road or highway found necessary and proper;
(11) Exercise jurisdiction, control, supervision and authority
over local roads, outside the state road system, to the extent
determined by
him or her the commissioner to be expedient and
practicable;
(12) Discontinue, vacate and close any road or highway, or any
part of any road or highway, the continuance and maintenance of
which are found unnecessary and improper, upon petition and hearing
or upon investigation initiated by the commissioner;
(13) Close any state road while under construction or repair
and provide a temporary road during the time of the construction or
repair;
(14) Adjust damages occasioned by construction, reconstruction
or repair of any state road or the establishment of any temporary
road;
(15) Establish and maintain a uniform system of road signs and
markers;
(16) Fix standard widths for road rights-of-way, bridges and
approaches to bridges and fix and determine grades and elevations
therefor;
(17) Test and standardize materials used in road construction
and maintenance, either by governmental testing and standardization
activities or through contract by private agencies;
(18) Allocate the cost of retaining walls and drainage
projects, for the protection of a state road or its right-of-way,
to the cost of construction, reconstruction, improvement or
maintenance;
(19) Acquire, establish, construct, maintain and operate, in
the name of the
department division, roadside recreational areas
along and adjacent to state roads and highways;
(20) Exercise general supervision over the construction and
maintenance of airports and landing fields under the jurisdiction
of the West Virginia State Aeronautics Commission, of which the
commissioner is a member, and make a study and general plan of a statewide system of airports and landing fields;
(21) Provide traffic engineering services to municipalities of
the state upon request of the governing body of any municipality
and upon terms that are agreeably arranged;
(22) Institute complaints before the Public Service Commission
or any other appropriate governmental agency relating to freight
rates, car service and movement of road materials and equipment;
(23) Invoke any appropriate legal or equitable remedies to
enforce his or her orders, to compel compliance with requirements
of law and to protect and preserve the state road and highway
system or any part of the system;
(24)
Make and promulgate rules Adopt procedural and
interpretive rules or propose legislative rules for legislative
approval, as appropriate, under the provisions of article three,
chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, for the government and conduct
of personnel, for the orderly and efficient administration and
supervision of the state road program and for the effective and
expeditious performance and discharge of the duties and
responsibilities placed upon him or her by law;
(25) Delegate powers and duties to his or her appointees and
employees who shall act by and under his or her direction and be
responsible to him or her for their acts;
(26) Designate and define any construction and maintenance
districts within the state road system that is found expedient and
practicable;
(27) Contract for the construction, improvement and
maintenance of the roads;
(28) Comply with provisions of present and future federal aid
statutes and regulations, including execution of contracts or
agreements with and cooperation in programs of the United States
government and any proper department, bureau or agency of the
United States government relating to plans, surveys, construction,
reconstruction, improvement and maintenance of state roads and
highways;
(29) Prepare budget estimates and requests;
(30) Establish a system of accounting covering and including
all fiscal and financial matters of the
department division;
(31) Establish and advance a right-of-way acquisition
revolving fund, a materials revolving fund and an equipment
revolving fund;
(32) Enter into contracts and agreements with and cooperate in
programs of counties, municipalities and other governmental
agencies and subdivisions of the state relating to plans, surveys,
construction, reconstruction, improvement, maintenance and
supervision of highways, roads, streets and other travel ways when
and to the extent determined by the
department division to be
expedient and practical;
(33) Report, as provided by law, to the Governor and the
Legislature;
(34) Purchase materials, supplies and equipment required for the state road program and system;
(35) Dispose of all obsolete and unusable and surplus supplies
and materials which cannot be used advantageously and beneficially
by the
department division in the state road program by transfer of
the supplies and materials to other governmental agencies and
institutions by exchange, trade or sale of the supplies and
materials;
(36) Investigate road conditions, official conduct of
department division personnel and fiscal and financial affairs of
the
department division and hold hearings and make findings thereon
or on any other matters within the jurisdiction of the
department
division;
(37) Establish road policies and administrative practices;
(38) Fix and revise from time to time tolls for transit over
highway projects constructed by the Division of Highways after May
1, 1999, that have been authorized by the provisions of section
five-b, article seventeen-a of this chapter;
(39) Take actions necessary to alleviate any conditions as the
Governor may declare to constitute an emergency, whether or not the
emergency condition affects areas normally under the jurisdiction
of the
department Division of Highways; and
(40) Provide family restrooms at all rest areas along
interstate highways in this state, all to be constructed in
accordance with federal law;
and
(41) With the advice and consent of the State Treasurer and business manager or his or her assistant, the commissioner may
transfer surplus cash balances between funds administered by the
division. Any transfer requires the receiving fund to give the
originating fund a credit in the amount of the transferred surplus
cash, and no transfer may be made if the transfer would cause the
originating fund to become impaired.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to permit the Commissioner
of Highways to transfer surplus cash balances between funds to
cover temporary cash flow needs provided the originating fund is
not impaired and the receiving fund gives a credit to the
originating fund.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)