West Virginia Use of County Property Tax Revenue to Fund Infrastructure Projects Amendment (2018)

West Virginia Use of County Property Tax Revenue to Fund Infrastructure Projects Amendment
Election date November 6, 2018
Topic Economic development and Property
Status Not on the ballot
Type Constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature
List of West Virginia measuresWest Virginia Amendment 1West Virginia Amendment 2Submit

The West Virginia Use of County Property Tax Revenue to Fund Infrastructure Projects Amendment was not on the ballot in West Virginia as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 6, 2018.

The measure would have authorized the state legislature to allow county commissions to use property taxes levied on certain manufacturing facilities to finance infrastructure improvement projects, including:

(a) water treatment, storage, and distribution facilities;

(b) wastewater collection, conveyance, treatment, and disposal facilities;

(c) stormwater collection and management facilities;

(d) flood control facilities;

(e) public primary and secondary school facilities owned by the county board of education;

(f) public roads, bridges, and rights-of-way owned by the state;

(g) parks and recreational facilities owned by the county, a municipality, or joint economic development entities;

(h) law enforcement, emergency medical, rescue, and fire protection facilities; and

(i) other infrastructure projects as determined by the legislature.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title would have been as follows:

“

County Economic Development Amendment To amend the state Constitution to permit the Legislature to allow county commissions to fund county infrastructure projects to promote economic development using property taxes imposed on new manufacturing facilities and capital additions to existing manufacturing facilities when the new facility, or the capital addition, costs more than $50 million without requiring the Legislature to make local levying body whole for some or all of the revenue foregone during the period of the property taxes are allocated pursuant to this section.

”

Constitutional changes

See also: Article X, West Virginia Constitution

The measure would have added a Section 1(d) to the Article X of the West Virginia Constitution. The following text would have been added: Note: Hover over the text and scroll to see the full text.

§1d. Use of property taxes to finance county economic development.

Any other provision of this Constitution notwithstanding, the Legislature may, by general law, authorize county commissions to allocate and spend a portion of property taxes imposed pursuant to section one, article X of this Constitution, but not including taxes attributable to excess levies and levies for bonded indebtedness, which are paid by owners of new manufacturing facilities in their county that cost more than $50 million, or by owners of new capital additions to existing manufacturing facilities in their county when the capital addition costs more than $50 million. The Legislature may, from time to time, increase these thresholds and may impose restrictions and conditions on the use of property taxes allocated pursuant to this section. The property taxes allocated pursuant to this section may be used to pay for infrastructure capital improvements on a pay-as-you go basis and to pay debt service on infrastructure capital improvement bonds. However, when the property taxes are used to pay debt service on infrastructure capital improvement bonds, the bonds may be issued without a vote of the people for a period of not more than thirty years. The allocation of property tax collections paid by a manufacturing facility described in this section ceases thirty years after the first year of the allocation in the county. For purposes of this section, the term “infrastructure capital improvement project” includes the following public facilities or assets that are owned, supported or established by county government or the state at the request of county government: (1) Water treatment, storage and distribution facilities; (2) wastewater collection, conveyance, treatment and disposal facilities; (3) stormwater collection and management facilities; (4) flood control facilities; (5) public primary and secondary school facilities, when owned by the county board of education; (6) public roads, bridges and rights-of-way, when owned by the state; (7) parks and recreational facilities, when owned by the county, a municipality or joint economic development entities; (8) law enforcement, emergency medical, rescue and fire protection facilities; and (9) other infrastructure capital improvement projects as defined by the Legislature.

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the West Virginia Constitution

In West Virginia, a constitutional amendment must be passed by a two-thirds vote in each house of the state legislature during one legislative session.

On February 9, 2017, the amendment was filed in the state legislature as Senate Joint Resolution 4. The West Virginia Senate approved the amendment, with all 34 senators voting in favor, on March 29, 2017. The bill never reached the House floor.

The 2017 legislative session began on February 8, 2017, and adjourned on April 9, 2017.

Senate vote

March 29, 2017

West Virginia SJR 1 Senate Vote
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		34	100.00%
No		0	0.00%

See also

Suggest a link

• 2018 ballot measures
• West Virginia 2018 ballot measures
• West Virginia Legislature
• Economic development on the ballot