Bill Text: WV HJR4 | 2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Taxpayers Bill of Rights
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-01-10 - To House Finance [HJR4 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2024-HJR4-Introduced.html
WEST virginia legislature
2024 regular session
Introduced
House Joint Resolution 4
By Delegate McGeehan
[Introduced January 10, 2024 ; Referred
to the Committee on Finance then the Judiciary]
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia, amending section fifty-one, article VI thereof, relating to the establishment of a general fund expenditure limit; numbering and designating such proposed amendment; and providing a summarized statement of the purpose of such proposed amendment.
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of the members elected to each house agreeing thereto:
That the question of ratification or rejection of an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be submitted to the voters of the state at the next general election to be held in the year 2024, which proposed amendment is that article VI, section 51 thereof be amended to read as follows:
ARTICLE VI.
§51. Budget and supplementary appropriation bills.
The Legislature shall not appropriate any money out of the Treasury except in accordance with the provisions of this section.
Subsection A -- Appropriation Bills
(1) Every appropriation bill shall be either a budget bill, or a supplementary appropriation bill, as hereinafter provided.
Subsection B -- Budget Bills
(2) Within 10 days after the convening of the regular session of the Legislature in odd-numbered years, unless such time shall be extended by the Legislature, and on the second Wednesday of January in even-numbered years, the Governor shall submit to the Legislature a budget for the next ensuing fiscal year. The budget shall contain a complete plan of proposed expenditures and estimated revenues for the fiscal year and shall show the estimated surplus or deficit of revenues at the end of each fiscal year. Accompanying each budget shall be a statement showing: (a) An estimate of the revenues and expenditures for the current fiscal year, including the actual revenues and actual expenditures to the extent available, and the revenues and expenditures for the next preceding fiscal year; (b) the current assets, liabilities, reserves and surplus or deficit of the state; (c) the debts and funds of the state; (d) an estimate of the state’s financial condition as of the beginning and end of the fiscal year covered by the budget; and (e) any explanation the Governor may desire to make as to the important features of the budget and any suggestions as to methods for reduction or increase of the state's revenue.
(3) Each budget shall embrace an itemized estimate of the appropriations, in such form and detail as the Governor shall determine or as may be prescribed by law: (a) For the Legislature as certified to the Governor in the manner hereinafter provided; (b) for the executive department; (c) for the judiciary department, as provided by law, certified to the Governor by the Auditor; (d) for payment and discharge of the principal and interest of any debt of the state created in conformity with the Constitution, and all laws enacted in pursuance thereof; (e) for the salaries payable by the state under the Constitution and laws of the state; and (f) for such other purposes as are set forth in the Constitution and in laws made in pursuance thereof.
(4) The Governor shall deliver to the presiding officer of each house the budget and a bill for all the proposed appropriations of the budget clearly itemized and classified, in such form and detail as the Governor shall determine or as may be prescribed by law; and the presiding officer of each house shall promptly cause the bill to be introduced therein, and such bill shall be known as the "Budget Bill." The Governor may, with the consent of the Legislature, before final action thereon by the Legislature, amend or supplement the budget to correct an oversight, or to provide funds contingent on passage of pending legislation, and in case of an emergency, he may deliver such an amendment or supplement to the presiding officers of both houses; and the amendment or supplement shall thereby become a part of the budget bill as an addition to the items of the bill or as a modification of or a substitute for any item of the bill the amendment or supplement may affect.
(5) The Legislature shall not amend the budget bill so as to create a deficit but may amend the bill by increasing or decreasing any item therein: Provided, That no item relating to the judiciary shall be decreased, and except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, the salary or compensation of any public officer shall not be increased or decreased during his term of office: Provided, however, That the Legislature shall not increase the estimate of revenue submitted in the budget without the approval of the Governor.
(6) The Governor and such representatives of the executive departments, boards, officers and commissions of the state expending or applying for state moneys as have been designated by the Governor for this purpose, shall have the right, and when requested by either house of the Legislature it shall be their duty, to appear and be heard with respect to any budget bill, and to answer inquiries relative thereto.
Subsection C -- Supplementary Appropriation Bills
(7) Neither house shall consider other appropriations until the budget bill has been finally acted upon by both houses, and no such other appropriations shall be valid except in accordance with the provisions following: (a) Every such appropriation shall be embodied in a separate bill limited to some single work, object or purpose therein stated and called therein a supplementary appropriation bill; (b) each supplementary appropriation bill shall provide the revenue necessary to pay the appropriation thereby made by a tax, direct or indirect, to be laid and collected as shall be directed in the bill unless it appears from such budget that there is sufficient revenue available.
Subsection D -- General Provisions
(8) If the budget bill shall not have been finally acted upon by the Legislature three days before the expiration of its regular session, the Governor shall issue a proclamation extending the session for such further period as may, in his judgment, be necessary for the passage of the bill; but no matter other than the bill shall be considered during such an extension of a session except a provision for the cost thereof.
(9) For the purpose of making up the budget, the Governor shall have the power, and it shall be his duty, to require from the proper state officials, including herein all executive departments, all executive and administrative officers, bureaus, boards, commissions and agencies expending or supervising the expenditure of, and all institutions applying for state moneys and appropriations, such itemized estimates and other information, in such form and at such times as he shall direct. The estimates for the legislative department, certified by the presiding officer of each house, and for the judiciary, as provided by law, certified by the Auditor, shall be transmitted to the Governor in such form and at such times as he shall direct, and shall be included in the budget.
(10) The Governor may provide for public hearings on all estimates and may require the attendance at such hearings of representatives of all agencies and all institutions applying for state moneys. After such public hearings he may, in his discretion, revise all estimates except those for the legislative and judiciary departments.
(11) Every budget bill or supplementary appropriation bill passed by a majority of the members elected to each house of the Legislature shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the Governor. The Governor may veto the bill, or he may disapprove or reduce items or parts of items contained therein. If he approves he shall sign it and thereupon it shall become a law. The bill, items or parts thereof, disapproved or reduced by the Governor, shall be returned with his objections to each house of the Legislature.
Each house shall enter the objections at large upon its journal and proceed to reconsider. If, after reconsideration, two thirds of the members elected to each house agree to pass the bill, or such items or parts thereof, as were disapproved or reduced, the bill, items or parts thereof, approved by two thirds of such members, shall become law, notwithstanding the objections of the Governor. In all such cases, the vote of each house shall be determined by yeas and nays to be entered on the journal.
A bill, item or part thereof, which is not returned by the Governor within five days (Sundays excepted) after the bill has been presented to him shall become a law in like manner as if he had signed the bill, unless the Legislature, by adjournment, prevents such return, in which case it shall be filed in the Office of the Secretary of State, within five days after such adjournment, and shall become a law; or it shall be so filed within such five days with the objections of the Governor, in which case it shall become law to the extent not disapproved by the Governor.
(12) The Legislature may, from time to time, enact such laws, not inconsistent with this section, as may be necessary and proper to carry out its provisions.
(13) In the event of any inconsistency between any of the provisions of this section and any of the other provisions of the Constitution, the provisions of this section shall prevail. But nothing herein shall be construed as preventing the Governor from calling extraordinary sessions of the Legislature, as provided by section nineteen of this article, or as preventing the Legislature at such extraordinary sessions from considering any emergency appropriation or appropriations.
(14) If any item of any appropriation bill passed under the provisions of this section shall be held invalid upon any ground, such invalidity shall not affect the legality of the bill or of any other item of such bill or bills.
Subsection E -- General Fund expenditure limit
(15) Definitions. The following definitions apply in this subsection:
(a) Fiscal growth factor. The average of the sum of inflation and population change for each of the preceding three calendar years. If either inflation or the population change for the preceding three calendar years is negative, then that change shall be counted as zero.
(b) Inflation. The percentage change in the consumer price index for the United States for each calendar year as published by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
(c) Population change. The percentage change in state population for each calendar year.
(16) General Fund expenditure limit. The General Fund expenditure limit for each fiscal year shall be the previous year’s General Fund expenditure limit increased by a percentage rate that equals the fiscal growth factor. The Governor may not propose expenditures from the General Fund for the ensuing fiscal period in excess of the projected General Fund expenditure limit. In enacting the budget for the fiscal year, the Legislature may not make appropriations from the General Fund in excess of the General Fund limit.
(17) Base fiscal year for General Fund expenditure limit. The total authorized General Fund budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025, increased by the fiscal growth factor, shall be used to determine the General Fund expenditure limit for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026, which will then be used to determine the General Fund expenditure limit for succeeding fiscal years.
(18) Decreases in General Fund expenditure limit. If, on or after December 31, 2026, the cost of any state program or function is shifted from the General Fund to another source of funding, including, but not limited to, counties or other units of local government, or if moneys are transferred from the General Fund to another fund or account, the General Fund expenditure limit shall be reduced by a like amount.
(19) Two-thirds vote of the Legislature is required to exceed General Fund expenditure limit. The Legislature may, by an affirmative vote of two thirds of the members of each house, make General Fund appropriations for nonrecurring expenses in excess of the General Fund expenditure limit for a period not to exceed 12 months beginning on the effective date of the appropriations.
(20) Any funds that are unexpended as a result of this provision that exceed five percent of the General Fund appropriation for the prior fiscal year shall be returned to the taxpayers.
Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of article eleven, chapter three of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, such amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment No. 1" and designated as the "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "To establish a General Fund expenditure limit."
NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to propose an amendment to §51, Article VI of the Constitution to establish a general fund expenditure limit. The amendment is designated "Taxpayer Bill of Rights."
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading of the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
