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SB 546 West Virginia Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Authorizing county commissions to levy additional excise tax on transferring real property to fund local economic development

SB 546 authorizes West Virginia county commissions to impose an additional 55-cent excise tax per $500 value on real estate transfers (already collected at closing) to fund local economic development. Beginning July 1, 2025, counties will retain 65% of this tax revenue - previously allocated to general county funds - to directly support economic development projects. The bill specifies that counties must use these funds exclusively for economic development initiatives, with no other uses permitted. This change affects property buyers and sellers during real estate transactions and gives counties a new dedicated funding source for local economic growth.
Issues: ✓ Budget & TaxesSupports Budget & TaxesAuthorizes new 55-cent excise tax on property transfers to fund economic development projects, directing tax revenue exclusively for this purpose per bill language.95% confidence
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Feb 20, 2025 Last action Mar 12, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Version → Committee Substitute · 5 edits
MODERATE
The bill was amended from an Introduced Version to a Committee Substitute version, primarily adding a new subsection (d) that authorizes counties to levy an additional excise tax for local economic development purposes starting July 1, 2025. The Committee Substitute also reorganized the funding allocation schedule for county excise taxes into clearer time periods and added provisions for minimum reserve funding requirements for election infrastructure. Most substantive changes involve the addition of new economic development tax authority and refined allocation percentages for different time periods.
Scope change
The bill's scope expanded to include new authority for county commissions to levy an additional excise tax specifically for funding local economic development corporations or authorities, which was not present in the introduced version.
FISCAL

New subsection (d) authorizes counties to impose an additional excise tax of up to $1.10 per $500 value starting July 1, 2025, exclusively for funding local economic development corporations or authorities.

Reorganized the excise tax retention schedule into three distinct time periods (2023-2024, 2024-2025, and 2025 onwards) with specific percentage allocations for county general fund, election administration, and other clerk purposes.

REQUIREMENT

Added requirement for Secretary of State to establish minimum standards for election infrastructure including cyber and physical security, with a minimum reserve funding requirement that may not exceed the statewide average cost to upgrade voting systems by precinct.

Added provision ensuring that funds deposited for election administration and other clerk purposes are in addition to typical county budget allocations and shall not be supplanted by budget reductions.

TECHNICAL

Removed introductory formatting elements including bill introduction date, committee referral information, and various website navigation elements that were present in the Introduced Version but not in the Committee Substitute.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
6
Key actions
1
Committee
4
Mar 12, 2025
Committee
To Finance
upper
Mar 12, 2025
Upper · Passed
Committee substitute reported, but first to Finance
upper
Feb 20, 2025
Committee
To Government Organization
upper
Feb 20, 2025
Introduced
Introduced in Senate
upper
Feb 20, 2025
Committee
To Government Organization then Finance
upper
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.