AN ACT Relating to excise taxation of warehouses; amending RCW 82.16.010 and 82.04.280; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. Section 82.16.010, chapter 15, Laws of 1961 as last amended by section 32, chapter 3, Laws of 1983 2nd ex. sess. and RCW 82.16.010 are each amended to read as follows:

For the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise required by the context:

(1) "Railroad business" means the business of operating any railroad, by whatever power operated, for public use in the conveyance of persons or property for hire. It shall not, however, include any business herein defined as an urban transportation business.

(2) "Express business" means the business of carrying property for public hire on the line of any common carrier operated in this state, when such common carrier is not owned or leased by the person engaging in such business.

(3) "Railroad car business" means the business of renting, leasing or operating stock cars, furniture cars, refrigerator cars, fruit cars, poultry cars, tank cars, sleeping cars, parlor cars, buffet cars, tourist cars, or any other kinds of cars used for transportation of property or persons upon the line of any railroad operated in this state when such railroad is not owned or leased by the person engaging in such business.

(4) "Water distribution business" means the business of operating a plant or system for the distribution of water for hire or sale.

(5) "Light and power business" means the business of operating a plant or system for the generation, production or distribution of electrical energy for hire or sale.

(6) "Telegraph business" means the business of affording telegraphic communication for hire.

(7) "Gas distribution business" means the business of operating a plant or system for the production or distribution for hire or sale of gas, whether manufactured or natural.

(8) "Motor transportation business" means the business (except urban transportation business) of operating any motor propelled vehicle by which persons or property of others are conveyed for hire, and includes, but is not limited to, the operation of any motor propelled vehicle as an auto transportation company (except urban transportation business), common carrier or contract carrier as defined by RCW 81.68.010 and 81.80.010: PROVIDED, That "motor transportation business" shall not mean or include the transportation of logs or other forest products exclusively upon private roads or private highways.

(9) "Urban transportation business" means the business of operating any vehicle for public use in the conveyance of persons or property for hire, insofar as (a) operating entirely within the corporate limits of any city or town, or within five miles of the corporate limits thereof, or (b) operating entirely within and between cities and towns whose corporate limits are not more than five miles apart or within five miles of the corporate limits of either thereof. Included herein, but without limiting the scope hereof, is the business of operating passenger vehicles of every type and also the business of operating cartage, pickup, or delivery services, including in such services the collection and distribution of property arriving from or destined to a point within or without the state, whether or not such collection or distribution be made by the person performing a local or interstate line-haul of such property.

(10) "Public service business" means any of the businesses defined in subdivisions (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), and (9) or any business subject to control by the state, or having the powers of eminent domain and the duties incident thereto, or any business hereafter declared by the legislature to be of a public service nature, except telephone business as defined in RCW 82.04.065. It includes, among others, without limiting the scope hereof: Airplane transportation, boom, dock, ferry, log patrol, pipe line, ((~~warehouse,~~)) toll bridge, toll logging road, water transportation and wharf businesses.

(11) "Tugboat business" means the business of operating tugboats, towboats, wharf boats or similar vessels in the towing or pushing of vessels, barges or rafts for hire.

(12) "Gross income" means the value proceeding or accruing from the performance of the particular public service or transportation business involved, including operations incidental thereto, but without any deduction on account of the cost of the commodity furnished or sold, the cost of materials used, labor costs, interest, discount, delivery costs, taxes, or any other expense whatsoever paid or accrued and without any deduction on account of losses: PROVIDED, That gross income of a light and power business means those amounts or value accruing to a taxpayer from the last distribution of electrical energy which is a taxable event within this state.

(13) The meaning attributed, in chapter 82.04 RCW, to the term "tax year," "person," "value proceeding or accruing," "business," "engaging in business," "in this state," "within this state," "cash discount" and "successor" shall apply equally in the provisions of this chapter.

Sec. 2. Section 2, chapter 8, Laws of 1970 ex. sess. as last amended by section 1, chapter 132, Laws of 1983 and RCW 82.04.280 are each amended to read as follows:

Upon every person engaging within this state in the business of: (1) Printing, and of publishing newspapers, periodicals or magazines; (2) building, repairing or improving any street, place, road, highway, easement, right of way, mass public transportation terminal or parking facility, bridge, tunnel, or trestle which is owned by a municipal corporation or political subdivision of the state or by the United States and which is used or to be used, primarily for foot or vehicular traffic including mass transportation vehicles of any kind and including any readjustment, reconstruction or relocation of the facilities of any public, private or cooperatively owned utility or railroad in the course of such building, repairing or improving, the cost of which readjustment, reconstruction, or relocation, is the responsibility of the public authority whose street, place, road, highway, easement, right of way, mass public transportation terminal or parking facility, bridge, tunnel, or trestle is being built, repaired or improved; (3) extracting for hire or processing for hire; (4) operating a cold storage warehouse or storage warehouse, but not including the rental of cold storage lockers; (5) representing and performing services for fire or casualty insurance companies as an independent resident managing general agent licensed under the provisions of RCW 48.05.310; (6) radio and television broadcasting, excluding network, national and regional advertising computed as a standard deduction based on the national average thereof as annually reported by the Federal Communications Commission, or in lieu thereof by itemization by the individual broadcasting station, and excluding that portion of revenue represented by the out-of-state audience computed as a ratio to the station's total audience as measured by the 100 micro-volt signal strength and delivery by wire, if any; (7) engaging in activities which bring a person within the definition of consumer contained in RCW 82.04.190(6), as now or hereafter amended; as to such persons, the amount of tax on such business shall be equal to the gross income of the business multiplied by the rate of forty-four one hundredths of one percent.

As used in this section, "cold storage warehouse" means a storage warehouse used to store fresh and/or frozen perishable fruits or vegetables, meat, seafood, dairy products, or fowl, or any combination thereof, at a desired temperature to maintain the quality of the product for orderly marketing.

As used in this section, "storage warehouse" means a building or structure, or any part thereof, in which goods, wares, or merchandise are received for storage for compensation, except field warehouses, fruit warehouses, fruit packing plants, warehouses licensed under chapter 22.09 RCW, public garages storing automobiles, railroad freight sheds, docks and wharves, and "self-storage" or "mini storage" facilities whereby customers have direct access to individual storage areas by separate entrance.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 1986.