Opinion ID: 1240566
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Lack of Adequate Statutory Guidance

Text: As we announced in syllabus point three of Quesenberry v. Estep, 142 W.Va. 426, 95 S.E.2d 832 (1956): As a general rule the Legislature, in delegating discretionary power to an administrative agency, such as a board or a commission, must prescribe adequate standards expressed in the statute or inherent in its subject matter and such standards must be sufficient to guide such agency in the exercise of the power conferred upon it. In comparison to the statutory guidance given to the school building authority in Wagoner II, we cannot concur with the trial court's ruling that the statutory guidelines provided in West Virginia Code § 29-22-18a(d)(3) are sufficient to withstand a challenge predicated on wrongful delegation of legislative powers. See W.Va. Const. art. VI, § 1. The following statutory guidance was provided for selecting among the various entities competing for school construction funds in Wagoner II: (a) It is the intent of the Legislature to empower the school building authority to facilitate and provide state funds for the construction and maintenance of school facilities so as to meet the educational needs of the people of this state in an efficient and economical manner. The authority shall make funding determinations in accordance with the provisions of this article and shall assess existing school facilities and each facility's plan in relation to the needs of the individual student, the general school population, the communities served by the facilities and facility needs statewide. W.Va.Code § 18-9D-15(a) (1993). Whereas the statute in Wagoner II gave a comprehensive listing of funding standards along with a clear statement of legislative intent, thereby avoiding the concern raised in Douglas that caprice would control the decision making process in the absence of clear guidelines, the statute currently under scrutiny contains no comparable guidance. See 568 P.2d at 534. And, unlike the specificity included in that statute at issue in Wagoner II, [34] the State Lottery Act provisions at issue here contain only the broadest statement of legislative intent and fail to include even a hint of standards for the Grant Committee's use in exercising its statutorily specified duties. See W.Va.Code § 29-22-18a(d). The Committee had no measuring stick, other than its self-created criteria, to rely upon in attempting to fulfill the legislative objective of economic development. Critically, the evaluative criteria adopted by the committee itself cannot constitute the legislative guidance necessary to withstand a wrongful delegation of powers challenge. To be clear, we do not imply a need to return to the days when courts sometimes imposed onerous requirements on the legislative and executive departments, thereby limiting the legislative branch's capacity to assign functions to the executive branch with only broad directives for implementing public policy. Nonetheless, the Legislature must articulate with sufficient clarity its public policy objectives to permit the executive department to effectuate those policy objectives and to educate the public as to the legislature's intentions. [35] We made clear in Polan that the Legislature cannot grant ... unbridled authority in the exercise of the power conferred upon ... [an administrative agency]. Syl. Pt. 2, in part, 190 W.Va. at 277, 438 S.E.2d at 309. At the core of CAG's contention is the fact that the Committee is authorized to select largely undefined projects without the benefit of any legislative guidance and that such projects, while required to serve a public purpose, in some instances clearly appear to also involve private undertakings or interests. Add to this concern, the fact that the legislatively approved expenditure of 215 million dollars of public funds involves borrowingthrough the sale of bondsand that the repayment of such public moneys is secured only by the excess profits of the state lottery over a lengthy period of time. Of further concern to those objecting to this economic development plan is the fact that the funds at issue will be largely extended by means of grants, rather than loans, and that little, if any, of such funds may be required to be repaid. [36] All of these validly raised objections serve to further underscore this Court's grave responsibility to carefully evaluate the constitutional imperatives implicated by the legislative plan to effect economic development through the statutory mechanism outlined in West Virginia Code § 29-22-18a(d)(3). Cognizant of our constitutional duties, we recognize that the power extended to the Grant Committee by the Legislature to exclusively select which projects may benefit from receipt of state funds must be exercised in conjunction with definitively announced legislative standards by which the Committee can appropriately evaluate the submitted projects for purposes of assuring that the selected projects will meet the legislated public purpose of economic development. In this Court's opinion, the legislation at issue has conferred uncontrolled discretion upon the Grant Committee by virtue of the lack of legislative guidance provided for determining the bases by which the grant applications should be considered. See Polan, 190 W.Va. at 280, 438 S.E.2d at 312. Accordingly, we hold that when an enabling statute such as West Virginia Code § 29-22-18a(d)(3) extends discretion to the executive branch in contemplation of an expenditure of public funds with only a broad statement of legislative intent and insufficient legislative guidance for the execution of that legislative intent, the Legislature has wrongfully delegated its powers to legislate in violation of article six, section one of the state constitution. See W.Va. Const. art. VI, § 1. Before the Grant Committee, upon its reconstitution, proceeds to implement the statute at issue, the Legislature is required to amend the subject legislation to provide the necessary standards that the Committee must apply in identifying and certifying projects selected for receipt of state funds pursuant to West Virginia Code § 29-22-18a(d). While we do not intend to identify what those standards should beas that is a legislative determinationwe emphasize that to withstand constitutional scrutiny the Legislature must provide the Committee with sufficient guidance so that the Committee's allocation decisions can be made with a clear understanding of the type of contemplated economic development it should be seeking to fund. As it stands now, the Legislature has failed to instruct the Committee even as to the general nature of projects which are encompassed within the statutory purview of economic development. [37] In short, suitable legislative standards for achieving the laudable goal of economic development have simply not been provided.