Senate Bill No. 280
(By Senators McCabe, Bailey, Foster and Plymale)
____________
[Introduced January 21, 2008; referred to the Committee on
Economic Development; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact §8-13B-3, §8-13B-5, §8-13B-7 and
§8-13B-14 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all
relating to modifying the Downtown Redevelopment Act to
promote development of municipal areas which are unusable
without extraordinary expenditures.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §8-13B-3, §8-13B-5, §8-13B-7 and §8-13B-14 of the Code of
West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 13B. DOWNTOWN REDEVELOPMENT DISTRICTS.
§8-13B-3. Definitions.
For purposes of this article, the term:
(1) "Committee" or "Council" means the committee established
in subdivision
(3) (6), subsection (d), section eighteen-a, article
twenty-two, chapter twenty-nine of this code;
(2) "District" means a downtown redevelopment district created
pursuant to this article;
(3) "District board" means a district board created pursuant
to section ten of this article;
(4) "Downtown property" means any taxable or exempt real
property which is classified for ad valorem real property tax
purposes as Class IV;
(5) "Gross annual district tax revenue amount" means the total
amount of consumers sales and service tax actually remitted to the
Tax Commissioner by vendors maintaining places of business within
the district with respect to sales made and services rendered by
such vendors from a location within the district for the twelve
full calendar months immediately preceding the filing of an
application pursuant to section seven of this article;
(6) "Municipality" means a municipal corporation recognized as
such in chapter eight of this code;
and
(7) "Redevelopment expenditures" means payments for
governmental functions, programs, activities, facility
construction, improvements and other goods and services which a
district board is authorized to perform or provide under section
five of this article;
and
(8) "Remediation" means measures undertaken to bring about the
reconditioning or restoration of property located within the
boundaries of a downtown redevelopment district project that has been affected by exploration, industrial operations, or solid waste
disposal and which measures, when undertaken, will eliminate or
ameliorate the existing state of such property and enable the
property to be commercially developed.
§8-13B-5. Redevelopment expenditures.
Any municipality that has established a downtown redevelopment
district under this article may make, or authorize to be made by a
district board and other public or private parties, such
redevelopment expenditures as will restore or promote the economic
vitality of the district and the general welfare of the
municipality, including, but not limited to, expenditures for the
following purposes:
(a) Beautification of the district, by means such as
landscaping and construction and erection of fountains, shelters,
benches, sculptures, signs, lighting, decorations and similar
amenities;
(b) Provision of special or additional public services, such
as sanitation, security for persons and property and the
construction and maintenance of public facilities, including
sidewalks and other public areas;
(c) Making payments for principal, interest, issuance costs,
any of the costs described in section eighteen of this article and
appropriate reserves for bonds and other instruments and
arrangements issued or entered into by the municipality for financing the expenditures of the district described in this
section and to otherwise implement the purposes of this article;
(d) Providing financial support for public transportation and
vehicle parking facilities open to the general public, whether or
not physically situate within the district's boundaries;
(e) Acquiring, demolishing, razing, constructing, repairing,
reconstructing, refurbishing, renovating, rehabilitating,
expanding, altering, otherwise developing, operating and
maintaining real property generally, parking facilities, commercial
structures and other capital improvements to real property,
fixtures and tangible personal property, whether or not physically
situate within the district's boundaries;
(f) Developing plans for the architectural design of the
district and portions thereof, and developing plans and programs
for the future development of the district;
(g) Developing, promoting and supporting community events and
activities open to the general public;
(h) Providing the administrative costs for a district
management program;
(i) Providing for the usual and customary maintenance and
upkeep of all improvements and amenities in the district as may be
commercially reasonable and necessary to sustain its economic
viability on a permanent basis;
(j) Providing any other services which the municipality or district board is authorized to perform and which the municipality
does not also perform to the same extent on a municipality-wide
basis;
(k) Making grants to the owners or tenants of downtown
property for the purposes described in this section;
(l) Acquiring an interest in any entity or entities that own
any portion of the real property situate in the district and
contributing capital to any such entity or entities;
and
(m) Remediation of publicly or privately owned landfills,
solid waste facilities or hazardous waste sites to facilitate
commercial development which would not otherwise be economically
feasible; and
(m) (n) To do any and all things necessary, desirable or
appropriate to carry out and accomplish the purposes of this
article:
Provided, That notwithstanding anything in this code to
the contrary, any redevelopment expenditure made by a licensed race
track, as defined in section three, article twenty-two-a, chapter
twenty-nine of this code, within thirty days after such
redevelopment expenditure shall have been requested in writing by
the district board, shall entitle such licensed race track to
receive the same recoupment from its capital reinvestment fund
account as any other capital improvement expenditure described in
subsection (b), section ten-c, article twenty-two-a, chapter
twenty-nine of this code.
§8-13B-7. Application to committee for approval of a downtown
redevelopment district project.
(a) The committee shall receive and act on applications filed
with it by municipalities pursuant to section six of this article.
Each such application must contain a copy of the notice described
in section six of this article; a general description of the
capital improvements, additional or extended services and other
proposed redevelopment expenditures to be made in the district; a
description of the proposed method of financing such redevelopment
expenditures, together with a description of such reserves to be
established for financing on-going redevelopment expenditures
necessary to permanently maintain the optimum economic viability of
the district following its inception:
Provided, That the amounts
of such reserves shall not exceed the amounts that would be
required by ordinary commercial capital market considerations; a
description of the sources and anticipated amounts of all such
financing, including, but not limited to, proceeds from the
issuance of any bonds, or other instruments, revenues from the
special district excise tax and enhanced revenues from municipal
business and occupation taxes, property taxes and fees; a
description of the financial contribution of the municipality to
the funding of redevelopment expenditures, which contribution may
include, but not be necessarily limited to, incremental business
and occupation taxes generated from district; a description of the financial contribution to the funding of redevelopment expenditures
by the county commission of the county in which the district is
situate; identification of any entities which the municipality
expects to relocate their business locations from the district to
another place in the state in connection with the establishment of
district:
Provided,
however, That for purposes of this article,
any such entities shall be designated "relocated entities"; a good
faith estimate of the aggregate amount of consumers sales and
service tax that was actually remitted to the Tax Commissioner by
all relocated entities with respect to their sales made and
services rendered from their business locations in the district for
the twelve full calendar months next preceding the date of the
application:
Provided further, That for purposes of this article,
such aggregate amount shall be designated as "the relocated tax
revenue amount"; a good faith estimate of the gross annual district
tax revenue amount; and the proposed application of any surplus
from all funding sources to further the objectives of this article:
And provided further, That the amount of all redevelopment
expenditures proposed to be made in the first twenty-four months
following the creation of the district shall be not less than fifty
million dollars:
And provided further, That for downtown
redevelopment district projects involving remediation such
twenty-four month period shall be forty-eight months. The
committee may not approve a project involving remediation authorized under section five of this article unless the
municipality submits clear and convincing information, to the
satisfaction of the committee, that the proposed remediation
expenditures to be financed by the issuance of bonds or notes
pursuant to section fourteen of this article does not constitute
more than twenty-five percent of the total redevelopment
expenditures associated with the project. The committee may
establish other criteria for approving such applications:
And
provided further, That the committee shall act to approve or not
approve any such application within thirty days following the
receipt of the application:
And provided further, That the
committee may not approve more than one application in the absence
of further authorization of the Legislature.
(b)If the committee approves a municipality's downtown
redevelopment district project application, it shall issue to the
municipality a written certificate evidencing such approval:
Provided, That such certificate shall expressly state a base tax
revenue amount which, for purposes of this article shall be the
difference between the gross annual district tax revenue amount and
the relocated tax revenue amount all of which the council shall
have determined with respect to such district's application based
on such investigation as it may deem reasonable and necessary
including, but not limited to, any relevant information the council
shall request from the Tax Commissioner and the Tax Commissioner shall provide to the council:
Provided, however, That, in
determining the base tax revenue amount, in lieu of confirmation
from the Tax Commissioner of the gross annual district tax revenue
amount, the council shall use the estimate of the gross annual
district tax revenue amount provided by the municipality pursuant
to subsection (a) of this section.
(c) The council may promulgate rules to implement the downtown
redevelopment district project application approval process and to
describe the criteria and procedures it has established in
connection therewith. These rules are not subject to the
provisions of chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, but shall be
filed with the Secretary of State.
§8-13B-14. Bonds issued to finance downtown redevelopment district
projects.
The governing body of a municipality may issue bonds or notes
for the purpose of financing redevelopment expenditures, as
described in section five of this article, with respect to one or
more downtown redevelopment district projects within the
municipality. All bonds issued by a municipality under the
authority of this article shall be limited obligations of the
municipality. No municipality may issue notes, bonds or other
instruments for funding district projects or improvements that
exceed a repayment schedule of forty years.
The maximum repayment
schedule of bonds issued to finance remediation authorized under section five of this article may not exceed twenty years. The
principal and interest on such bonds shall be payable out of the
funds on deposit in the subaccount established for the downtown
redevelopment district pursuant to section eight of this article,
including without limitation any funds derived from the special
district excise tax imposed by section eleven of this article, or
other revenues derived from the downtown redevelopment project to
the extent pledged for such purpose by the governing body of the
municipality in the resolution authorizing the bonds. To the
extent that the average daily amount on deposit in the subaccount
established for a district pursuant to section eight of this
article exceeds, for more than six consecutive calendar months, the
sum of: (1) One hundred thousand dollars; plus (2) the amount
required to be kept on deposit pursuant to the documents
authorizing, securing or otherwise relating to the bonds or notes
issued under this section, then such excess shall be used by the
district either to redeem the bonds or notes previously issued or
shall be remitted to the General Fund of this state. The bonds and
any interest coupons issued under the authority of this article
shall never constitute an indebtedness of the municipality issuing
the same within the meaning of any Constitutional provision or
statutory limitation and shall never constitute or give rise to a
pecuniary liability of the municipality issuing the same. Neither
shall such bond nor interest thereon be a charge against the general credit or taxing powers of the municipality and such fact
shall be plainly stated on the face of each such bond. Such bonds
may be executed, issued and delivered at any time and from time to
time; may be in such form and denomination; may be of such tenor,
must be negotiable but may be registered as to the principal
thereof or as to the principal and interest thereof; may be payable
in such amounts and at such time or times; may be payable at such
place or places; may bear interest at such rate or rates payable at
such place or places and evidenced in such manner; and may contain
such provisions therein not inconsistent herewith, all as shall be
provided in the proceedings of the governing body of the
municipality whereunder the bonds shall be authorized to be issued.
Said bonds may be sold by the governing body of the municipality at
public or private sale at, above or below par, as the governing
body of the municipality shall authorize.
The bonds issued pursuant to this article shall be signed by
the mayor or other chief officer thereof and attested by the clerk,
recorder or other official custodian of the records of said
municipality and under the seal of the municipality. Any coupons
attached thereto shall bear the facsimile signature of the mayor or
other chief officer of the municipality. In case any of the
officials whose signatures appear on the bonds or coupons shall
cease to be such officers before the delivery of such bonds, such
signatures shall, nevertheless, be valid and sufficient for all purposes to the same extent as if they had remained in office until
such delivery.
If the proceeds of such bonds, by error of calculation or
otherwise, shall be less than the cost of the downtown
redevelopment district project, or if additional real or personal
property is to be added to the downtown redevelopment district
project or if it is determined that financing is needed for
additional redevelopment expenditures, additional bonds may in like
manner be issued to provide the amount of the deficiency, or to
defray the cost of acquiring or financing such additional real or
personal property or such redevelopment expenditures, and unless
otherwise provided for in the trust agreement, mortgage or deed of
trust, shall be deemed to be of the same issue, and shall be
entitled to payment from the same fund, without preference or
priority, and shall be of equal priority as to any security.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to promote development of
municipal areas which are unusable without extraordinary
expenditures.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.