Senate 1033

WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE

2026 REGULAR SESSION

Introduced

Senate Bill 1033

By Senator Thorne

[Introduced February 20, 2026; referred
to the Committee on Government Organization]

A BILL to amend and reenact §19-12A-5 and §19-12A-6a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to the powers and duties of the West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture with respect to land owned by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture; and relating to the disposition of funds generated from that land.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

ARTICLE 12A. LAND DIVISION.

§19-12A-5. Powers, duties, and responsibilities of commissioner.

(a) The commissioner shall manage all institutional farms, equipment, and other property to most efficiently produce food products for state institutions, support the department and its activities, advance the agricultural interests of the state, as identified by the commissioner, and otherwise implement the intent of the Legislature as set forth by this article. From the total amount of food, milk, and other commodities produced on institutional farms, the commissioner shall sell, at prevailing wholesale prices, and each of the institutions under the control of the Department of Health Facilities and Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation shall purchase, these products based on the dietary needs of each institution: Provided, That if the commissioner cannot sell sufficient food products to each institution to meet the demand created, each institution may purchase such food products from vendors who can supply those food products at the greatest savings to the taxpayers of the state.

(b) If requested by the Commissioner of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the commissioner may authorize the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation to operate a farm or other enterprise using inmates as labor on those lands. The Commissioner of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation is responsible for the selection, direction, and supervision of the inmates and shall, in consultation with the Commissioner of Agriculture, assign the work to be performed by inmates. The Commissioner of Agriculture may also request inmate labor to perform work on the institutional farms, and if requested, the Commissioner of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation shall provide inmate labor, if available.

(c) The commissioner is authorized and empowered to  may

(1) Lease to public or private parties, for purposes including agricultural production or experimentation, public necessity, or other purposes, any land, easements, equipment, or other property, except that property may not be leased for any use in any manner that would render the land toxic for agricultural use, nor may toxic or hazardous materials as identified by the Commissioner of Agriculture be used or stored upon such property unless all applicable state and federal permits necessary are obtained;

(2) Transfer to the public land corporation land designated in its management plan as land to be disposed of, which land shall be sold, exchanged, or otherwise transferred pursuant to §5A-11-4 and §5A-11-5 of this code;

(3) Develop lands to which it has title for the public use including forestation, recreation, wildlife, stock grazing, agricultural production, rehabilitation, and/or other conservation activities and may contract or lease for the proper development of timber, oil, gas, or mineral resources, including coal by underground mining or by surface mining where reclamation as required by specifications of the Department of Environmental Protection will increase the beneficial use of such property;

(4) Upon 30 days written notice to the lessee, cancel a lease to which the department is a party and which is for annual consideration of less than $5 per acre: Provided, That such the lease must contain a provision authorizing cancellation or impairment by the Legislature; and

(5) Transfer land, or any interest therein, to another public body pursuant to the provisions of §1-5-1 through §1-5-5 of this code: and

(5) (6) Exercise all other powers and duties necessary to effectuate the purposes of this article.

(d) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (c) of this section, no timberland may be leased, sold, exchanged, or otherwise disposed of unless there is no commercially salable timber on the timberland, an inventory is provided, and an appraisal of the timber is provided.

(e) The commissioner may promulgate, pursuant to §29-1-1 et seq. of this code, rules and regulations relating to the powers and duties of the commissioner as enumerated in this section.

§19-12A-6a. Special revenue account.

All Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the contrary, all funds collected by the  department pursuant to this article, whether from the sale of food, the disposition of assets other than land, the lease of land or minerals or any other source, shall be paid into a special revenue account to be used for the purposes of this article: Provided, That when the remaining balance at the end of any fiscal year of the funds so collected and deposited in the special revenue account exceeds $1 million, the department may transfer the excess funds to the Department of Agriculture Capital Improvements Fund established in §19-1-4e of this code.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to enable the West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture to transfer land owned by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture to other public bodies pursuant to §1-5-1 through to §1-5-5 of this code and deposit any proceeds from the transfer into the special revenue account established in §19-12A-6a of this code.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.