Bill Text: WV SB613 | 2022 | Regular Session | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Establishing reliable funding for DEP Office of Oil and Gas
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-02-25 - On 2nd reading to Finance [SB613 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2022-SB613-Comm_Sub.html
WEST virginia legislature
2022 regular session
Committee Substitute
for
Senate Bill 613
By Senators Smith, Phillips, and Stollings
[Originating in the Committee on Energy, Industry, and Mining; reported on February 15, 2022]
A BILL to amend and reenact §11-13A-5a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to the apportionment of oil and gas severance taxes; and relating to funding the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas adequately and meaningfully.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 13A. SEVERANCE AND BUSINESS PRIVILEGE TAX ACT.
§11-13A-5a. Dedication
of ten 10 percent of oil and gas severance tax for benefit of
counties and municipalities and of one and one half percent of oil and gas
severance tax for the benefit of the West Virginia Department of Environmental
Protection Office of Oil and Gas; distribution of major portion of such
dedicated tax to oil and gas producing counties; distribution of minor portion
of such dedicated tax to all counties and municipalities; reports; rules;
special funds in the office of state treasurer; methods and formulae for
distribution of such dedicated tax; expenditure of funds by counties and
municipalities for public purposes; and requiring special county and municipal
budgets and reports thereon.
(a) Effective the first
day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-six, July 1, 1996,
five percent of the tax attributable to the severance of oil and gas imposed by
section three-a of this article §11-13A-3a of this code is hereby
dedicated for the use and benefit of counties and municipalities within this
state and shall be distributed to the counties and municipalities as provided
in this section. Effective the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-seven, July 1, 1997, and thereafter, ten 10
percent of the tax attributable to the severance of oil and gas imposed by section
three-a of this article §11-13A-3a of this code is hereby dedicated
for the use and benefit of counties and municipalities within this state and
shall be distributed to the counties and municipalities as provided in this
section. Effective July 1, 2022, and thereafter, one and one half percent of
the tax attributable to the severance of oil and gas imposed by §11-13A-3a of
this code is hereby dedicated for the use and benefit of regulating the oil and
gas industry by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Office
of Oil and Gas and shall be deposited in the Oil and Gas Operating Permit and
Processing Fund to ensure that the Office of Oil and Gas has sufficient funding
to support its regulatory mission of ensuring the safety of the natural
environment of the State of West Virginia.
(b) Seventy-five percent of
this the dedicated tax for counties and municipalities
shall be distributed by the state treasurer State Treasurer in
the manner specified in this section to the various counties of this state in
which the oil and gas upon which this additional tax is imposed was located at
the time it was removed from the ground. Those counties are referred to in this
section as the “oil and gas producing counties”. The remaining 25 percent of
the net proceeds of this additional tax on oil and gas shall be distributed
among all the counties and municipalities of this state in the manner specified
in this section.
(c) The tax commissioner
Tax Commissioner is hereby granted plenary power and authority to
promulgate reasonable rules requiring the furnishing by oil and gas producers
of such additional information as may be necessary to compute the allocation
required under the provisions of subsection (f) of this section. The tax
commissioner Tax Commissioner is also hereby granted plenary power
and authority to promulgate such other reasonable rules as may be necessary to
implement the provisions of this section.
Seventy-five percent of the
dedicated tax for counties and municipalities on oil and gas shall be
deposited in the “oil and gas county revenue fund” Oil and Gas County
Revenue Fund and 25 percent of the dedicated tax on oil and gas shall be
deposited in the “all counties and municipalities oil and gas revenue fund”
All Counties and Municipalities Oil and Gas Revenue Fund, from time to
time, as the proceeds are received by the tax commissioner Tax
Commissioner. The moneys in the funds shall be distributed to the
respective counties and municipalities entitled to the moneys in the manner set
forth in subsection (e) of this section.
(e) The moneys in the “oil
and gas county revenue fund” and the moneys in the “all counties and
municipalities oil and gas revenue fund” All Counties and Municipalities
Oil and Gas Revenue Fund shall be allocated among and distributed annually
to the counties and municipalities entitled to the moneys by the state
treasurer State Treasurer in the manner specified in this section.
On or before each distribution date, the state treasurer State
Treasurer shall determine the total amount of moneys in each fund which
will be available for distribution to the respective counties and
municipalities entitled to the moneys on that distribution date. The
amount to which an oil and gas producing county is entitled from the “oil
and gas county revenue fund” Oil and Gas County Revenue Fund shall
be determined in accordance with subsection (f) of this section, and the amount
to which every county and municipality shall be entitled from the “all counties
and municipalities oil and gas revenue fund” shall be determined in accordance
with subsection (g) of this section. After determining, as set forth in
subsections (f) and (g) of this section, the amount each county and
municipality is entitled to receive from the respective fund or funds, a
warrant of the state auditor State Auditor for the sum due to the
county or municipality shall issue and a check drawn thereon making payment of
the sum shall thereafter be distributed to the county or municipality.
(f) The amount an oil and
gas producing county is entitled from the “oil and gas county revenue fund”
Oil and Gas County Revenue Fund shall be determined by:
(1) In the case of moneys derived from tax on the severance of gas:
(A) Dividing the total amount of moneys in the fund derived from tax on the severance of gas then available for distribution by the total volume of cubic feet of gas extracted in this state during the preceding year; and
(B) Multiplying the quotient thus obtained by the number of cubic feet of gas taken from the ground in the county during the preceding year; and
(2) In the case of moneys derived from tax on the severance of oil:
(A) Dividing the total amount of moneys in the fund derived from tax on the severance of oil then available for distribution by the total number of barrels of oil extracted in this state during the preceding year; and
(B) Multiplying the quotient thus obtained by the number of barrels of oil taken from the ground in the county during the preceding year.
(g) The amount to which
each county and municipality is entitled from the “all counties and
municipalities oil and gas revenue fund” All Counties and Municipalities
Oil and Gas Revenue Fund shall be determined in accordance with the
provisions of this subsection. For purposes of this subsection, “population”
means the population as determined by the most recent decennial census taken
under the authority of the United States:
(1) The treasurer State
Treasurer shall first apportion the total amount of moneys available in the
“all counties and municipalities oil and gas revenue fund” All
Counties and Municipalities Oil and Gas Revenue Fund by multiplying the
total amount in the fund by the percentage which the population of each county
bears to the total population of the state. The amount thus apportioned for
each county is the county's base share.
(2) Each county’s base
share shall then be subdivided into two portions. One portion is shall
be determined by multiplying the base share by that percentage which the
total population of all unincorporated areas within the county bears to the
total population of the county, and the other portion is shall be
determined by multiplying the base share by that percentage which the total
population of all municipalities within the county bears to the total
population of the county. The former portion shall be paid to the county and
the latter portion shall be the municipalities' portion of the county’s base share.
The percentage of the latter portion to which each municipality in the
county is entitled shall be determined by multiplying the total of the latter
portion by the percentage which the population of each municipality within the
county bears to the total population of all municipalities within the county.
(h) Moneys distributed to
any county or municipality under the provisions of this section, from either or
both special funds, shall be deposited in the county or municipal general fund
and may be expended by the county commission or governing body of the
municipality for such purposes as the county commission or governing body shall
determine to be in the best interest of its respective county or municipality: Provided,
That in counties with population in excess of two hundred thousand 200,000,
at least 75 percent of the funds received from the oil and gas county revenue
fund shall be apportioned to and expended within the oil and gas producing area
or areas of the county, the oil and gas producing areas of each county to be
determined generally by the state tax commissioner Tax Commissioner:
Provided, however, That the moneys distributed to any county or
municipality under the provisions of this section shall not be budgeted for
personal services in an amount to exceed one fourth of the total amount of the
moneys.
(i) On or before the twenty-eighth
day of March, one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven March 28, 1997,
and each twenty-eighth 28th day of March thereafter, each county
commission or governing body of a municipality receiving any such moneys shall
submit to the tax commissioner Tax Commissioner on forms provided
by the tax commissioner Tax Commissioner a special budget,
detailing how the moneys are to be spent during the subsequent fiscal year. The
budget shall be followed in expending the moneys unless a subsequent budget is
approved by the state tax commissioner Tax Commissioner. All
unexpended balances remaining in the county or municipality general fund at the
close of a fiscal year shall remain in the general fund and may be expended by
the county or municipality without restriction.
(j) On or before the fifteenth
day of December, one thousand nine hundred ninety-six December 15, 1996,
and each fifteenth 15th day of December thereafter, the tax
commissioner Tax Commissioner shall deliver to the clerk Clerk
of the Senate and the clerk Clerk of the House of Delegates a
consolidated report of the budgets, created by subsection (i) of this section,
for all county commissions and municipalities as of the fifteenth 15th
day of July of the current year.
(k) The state tax
commissioner Tax Commissioner shall retain for the benefit of the
state from the dedicated tax attributable to the severance of oil and gas the
amount of thirty-five thousand dollars $35,000 annually as a fee
for the administration of the additional tax by the tax commissioner Tax
Commissioner.
