Proposed nonproduction or excess acreage tax: Viable revenue source or unconstitutional property tax

Journal Article · · West Virginia Law Review; (USA)

OSTI ID:5632081

In an attempt to create new funding for critically needed public services, West Virginia legislators in both the House of Delegates and the Senate submitted versions of an excess acreage tax during the 1987 legislative session. (Both bills were tabled, but one author has presented a revised version, a nonproduction tax, to the State Legislature in 1988). Analysis of the bills will show that either a nonproduction tax or an excess acreage tax fits the definition of a property tax more closely than that of a license or privilege tax. As a property tax, a nonproduction tax or an excess acreage tax raises questions of state constitutionality primarily because such a tax is based on mere ownership, not value, of real property, and because it impacts holders of real property only, in a state in which all forms of property are to be taxed equally and uniformly under West Virginia Constitution of 1872 article 10, section 1. This paper discusses the bills and the drafters' purposes, constitutional concerns, effect and effectiveness of a nonproduction or excess acreage tax, and attempts to answer the question of whether restrictions on property classification and amounts of taxation should be changed. Appendices to the paper contain the pertinent parts of both bills.

• OSTI ID: 5632081
• Journal Information: West Virginia Law Review; (USA), Journal Name: West Virginia Law Review; (USA) Vol. 90:3; ISSN 0043-3268; ISSN WVLRD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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