Opinion ID: 1264938
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Challenges to Projects Certified by the Grant Committee

Text: Petitioners Rev. Jim Lewis and John Cooney [12] challenge the projects certified by the Economic Development Grant Committee on several grounds. First, the petitioners aver that the Grant Committee improperly failed to make findings to show that the projects certified by the Committee were for a public purpose and were consistent with the standards set forth in the State Excess Lottery Revenue Fund statute at W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a(d)(8)(A) through (F). We disagree. First, nothing in W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a(d) (2003) requires the Grant Committee to make formal written findings, and this Court did not impose such a requirement in Grant Committee I. Second, the Grant Committee made a full record of its proceedings as evidenced by the transcripts of its meetings on July 16, 2003, July 28, 2003, August 15, 2003, and August 20, 2003, and its public hearing on August 4, 2003. These transcripts were filed with this Court. Finally, according to the affidavit of Brian M. Kastick, the Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Tax and Revenue and Chair and Member of the Grant Committee, the Committee's proceedings were open to the public and conducted pursuant to the State Register; notice of the public hearing was advertised in three newspapers of wide circulation; and oral and written public comment was solicited. Accordingly, we find no merit to the petitioner's argument on this issue. Second, the petitioners assert that according to the provisions of W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a(d)(9) (2003), the financial equivalent of the economic benefit received by private entities from State monies must be repaid, at a low rate of interest, to the State. The petitioners misread the statute. The statute provides that [g]rants may be awarded only to an agency, instrumentality or political subdivision of this state or to an agency or instrumentality of a political subdivision of this state. Further, [t]he project of an individual or private person or entity may be certified to receive a low-interest loan paid from bond proceeds. The exhibits filed with this Court indicate that the forty-nine applicants certified to receive economic development grants were agents, instrumentalities, or political subdivisions of the State or an agency or instrumentality of a political subdivision. Finally, to the extent that the petitioners challenge the basic funding mechanism provided in W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a, such a challenge was rejected by this Court in Grant Committee I. Therefore, we find no merit to the petitioners' argument on this issue. Third, we reject the petitioners' constitutional challenges to W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a and to the projects certified by the Grant Committee. Specifically, the petitioners aver that the economic grants amount to violations of the due process rights of smaller, publicly unsubsidized retail, service and entertainment enterprises. The petitioners also assert that the grants amount to an unconstitutional taking of these smaller businesses' property. It appears to this Court that these constitutional arguments rest at least in part on the proposition that the grants at issue are not for a public purpose, but rather will predominantly aid private commercial interests. However, we heretofore rejected the same claim in Grant Committee I. Concerning challenges to the individual projects certified, the Legislature has reposed broad discretion in the Grant Committee to select economic development projects that meet with the Legislature's declared objective of economic development. After carefully reviewing the pleadings and exhibits submitted to this Court, we are unable to conclude that the projects certified by the Grant Committee failed to take into consideration the Legislature's directives set forth in W.Va.Code §§ 29-22-18a(d)(8)(A) through (F) and (11)(A) through (L). Finally, the petitioners assert that the economic grants amount to the single biggest anti-woman, sexist operation of the State in its 140-year history. Specifically, it appears that the petitioners' argument is that the grants at issue will result in the creation of retail, service, and entertainment jobs in which, petitioners allege, women traditionally have received less pay than their male counterparts and are systematically and disproportionately subjected to employment injustices. Because we find that such a claim is speculative, we conclude that the petitioners have failed to state a cause of action. Accordingly, we find no merit to the petitioners' averments on this issue. [13] In sum, this Court has determined that the Legislature cured the constitutional infirmities in W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a by amending that statute to conform to this Court's directives in Grant Committee I. We also have found that the video lottery created by the Racetrack Video Lottery Act and the Limited Video Lottery Act, which serves as the funding source of the revenue bonds issued by the Economic Development Authority pursuant to W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a, is a lottery which is regulated, controlled, owned and operated in the manner provided by general laws of the Legislature within the scope of the exception to the prohibition against lotteries in W.Va. Const., Art. VI, § 36. Finally we have rejected all other legal challenges brought against W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a, the certification of the projects by the Economic Development Grant Committee, and the issuance of the revenue bonds by the Development Authority. Accordingly, this Court denies the writs prayed for by the petitioners in case numbers 31541 and 31564. In case number 31540, the Cities and Counties petitioners urge this Court to issue a writ of mandamus to compel the Economic Development Authority to issue revenue bonds in accord with W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a(d)(1) (2003) in order to finance the projects certified by the Grant Committee and particularly the certified projects sponsored by the petitioners. According to W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a(d)(1) in relevant part, The West Virginia economic development authority created and provided for in article fifteen, chapter thirty-one of this code shall, by resolution, in accordance with the provisions of this article and article fifteen, chapter thirty-one of this code, and upon direction of the governor, issue revenue bonds of the economic development authority in no more than two series to pay for all or a portion of the cost of constructing, equipping, improving or maintaining projects under this section or to refund the bonds at the discretion of the authority. We agree with the Cities and Counties that W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a(d) provides a mandatory duty on the part of the Development Authority to issue the revenue bonds in accord with the specific terms of that code section. It is well established that the word `shall,' in the absence of language in the statute showing a contrary intent on the part of the Legislature, should be afforded a mandatory connotation. Syllabus Point 1, Nelson v. W.Va. Pub. Employees Ins. Bd., 171 W.Va. 445, 300 S.E.2d 86 (1982). We discern nothing in W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a(d) which grants discretion to the Authority to refuse to issue the bonds once the Governor has so directed. [14] However, this Court is extremely reluctant to compel a public corporation and government instrumentality of another branch of State government to incur debt. [15] We are also cognizant that the issuance of public bonds may rest upon factors other than their legality such as conditions of the bond market. This Court can no more control market conditions which govern the timing of the issuance of bonds than it can control the weather. It is possible that subsequent to our decision herein, market conditions could become unfavorable which would force a delay in the issuance of the bonds. In such an event, we do not believe that the Authority should be constrained by an order of this Court from responding to changing economic conditions. We note that the only reasons given by the Authority for refusing to follow the Governor's directive to issue the bonds were the legal challenges in the instant cases. We now have resolved all of these legal challenges. Therefore, we are confident that, absent some currently unforeseen economic circumstances which would compel a different response, the Development Authority will move with dispatch to issue the bonds in the manner provided by W.Va.Code § 29-22-18(a)(1) and in accord with the Governor's directive. For these reasons, we grant the writ of mandamus as moulded in case number 31540, and we direct the West Virginia Economic Development Authority to issue the revenue bonds in the manner provided in W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a(d) (2003) if all nonlegal factors so permit. Once again, let us be perfectly clear. As a result of this decision, there exists no constitutional, statutory, or other legal impediment to the immediate issuance and sale of the subject revenue bonds. In closing, having resolved the legal issues herein, this Court believes that a few comments are in order. First, we wish to emphasize the very limited nature of our review of the challenged legislation. Because the general powers of the Legislature are almost plenary, this Court's sole concern in reviewing a legislative enactment is to determine whether it offends any provisions of the State or Federal Constitutions. As noted above, in considering the constitutionality of a legislative enactment, we exercise due restraint and will find a statute unconstitutional only when the negation of legislative power appears to us beyond a reasonable doubt. See Syllabus Point 1, State ex rel. Appalachian Power Co. v. Gainer, supra . In the instant case, the negation of the Legislature's power to enact the Racetrack Video Lottery Act, the Limited Video Act, and the State Excess Lottery Revenue Fund statute does not appear to us beyond a reasonable doubt. We further note that several of the challenges to the subject legislation are based on public policy grounds. However, [c]ourts are not concerned with questions relating to legislative policy. Syllabus Point 1, in part, State ex rel. Appalachian Power Co. v. Gainer, supra . While there may be individual members of this Court who agree with several of the concerns raised by the Coalition Petitioners in their challenges to the video lottery, it simply is not the role of this Court to determine the wisdom or advisability of State-sanctioned video lottery games. In regards to the State Excess Lottery Revenue Fund statute, several individual members of this Court doubtless would have sought to promote economic development by other means. Perhaps some of us question the economic utility of several of the projects in the public interest and for a public purpose listed by the Legislature in W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a(d)(11) and approved by the Grant Committee, but it is not our function to base decisions on such personal concerns. Frankly, some of us might have done things differently if we were legislators, but we are not. We simply cannot emphasize strongly enough that our inquiry herein is strictly limited to the constitutionality of the subject legislation and not a personal estimation of its advisability or effectiveness. Finally, this Court believes that a major disadvantage of economic development schemes such as the one devised in W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a, is that such schemes are inherently subject to criticism and open to claims of favoritism, and it is that favoritism or appearance of favoritism that inevitably taints it. Petitioners Lewis and Cooney leveled several charges of favoritism against the Grant Committee and top legislators. For example, the petitioners assert that a majority of counties did not receive economic development grant money, including several disadvantaged counties, because these counties did not have members on the Grant Committee or top legislators steering the money. The disgruntled petitioners also allege that the seventeen counties which are due to receive over $200 million of the grant money are home to either Grant Committee members or the twelve top legislators. This latter charge is also cited in a recent local newspaper article. [16] According to this article, every member of the Grant Committee brought home money for at least one project in his or her county. In addition, the counties served by the Senate and House Rules Committeesmade up of the chairpersons of several powerful committees, such as judiciary and finance, as well as the Senate President, Speaker of the House, and majority and minority leadersrepresent 56% of the State's population but received 78% of the economic development grant funds. Such alleged appearances of favoritism are bound to meet with public resistance and the court challenges which usually accompany such resistance. However, whether true or not, these types of claims and charges are actually political and policy questions and, at least as framed here, not legal questions. These are issues which should not be addressed by a court but are more properly decided by the Legislature or ultimately the people on election day.