AN ACT Relating to taxation; and amending RCW 42.17.310 and 82.32.330.

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

Sec. 1. Section 31, chapter 1, Laws of 1973 as last amended by section 21, chapter 143, Laws of 1984 and RCW 42.17.310 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The following are exempt from public inspection and copying:

(a) Personal information in any files maintained for students in public schools, patients or clients of public institutions or public health agencies, welfare recipients, prisoners, probationers, or parolees.

(b) Personal information in files maintained for employees, appointees, or elected officials of any public agency to the extent that disclosure would violate their right to privacy.

(c) Information required of any taxpayer in connection with the assessment or collection of any tax if the disclosure of the information to other persons would (i) be prohibited to such persons by RCW 82.32.330 or (ii) violate the taxpayer's right to privacy or ((~~would~~)) result in unfair competitive disadvantage to the taxpayer.

(d) Specific intelligence information and specific investigative records compiled by investigative, law enforcement, and penology agencies, and state agencies vested with the responsibility to discipline members of any profession, the nondisclosure of which is essential to effective law enforcement or for the protection of any person's right to privacy.

(e) Information revealing the identity of persons who file complaints with investigative, law enforcement, or penology agencies, other than the public disclosure commission, if disclosure would endanger any person's life, physical safety, or property: PROVIDED, That if at the time the complaint is filed the complainant indicates a desire for disclosure or nondisclosure, such desire shall govern: PROVIDED, FURTHER, That all complaints filed with the public disclosure commission about any elected official or candidate for public office must be made in writing and signed by the complainant under oath.

(f) Test questions, scoring keys, and other examination data used to administer a license, employment, or academic examination.

(g) Except as provided by chapter 8.26 RCW, the contents of real estate appraisals, made for or by any agency relative to the acquisition or sale of property, until the project or prospective sale is abandoned or until such time as all of the property has been acquired or the property to which the sale appraisal relates is sold, but in no event shall disclosure be denied for more than three years after the appraisal.

(h) Valuable formulae, designs, drawings, and research data obtained by any agency within five years of the request for disclosure when disclosure would produce private gain and public loss.

(i) Preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, and intra-agency memorandums in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended except that a specific record shall not be exempt when publicly cited by an agency in connection with any agency action.

(j) Records which are relevant to a controversy to which an agency is a party but which records would not be available to another party under the rules of pretrial discovery for causes pending in the superior courts.

(k) Records, maps, or other information identifying the location of archaeological sites in order to avoid the looting or depredation of such sites.

(l) Any library record, the primary purpose of which is to maintain control of library materials, or to gain access to information, which discloses or could be used to disclose the identity of a library user.

(m) Financial information supplied by or on behalf of a person, firm, or corporation for the purpose of qualifying to submit a bid or proposal for (a) a ferry system construction or repair contract as required by RCW 47.60.680 through 47.60.750 or (b) highway construction or improvement as required by RCW 47.28.070.

(n) Railroad company contracts filed with the utilities and transportation commission under RCW 81.34.070, except that the summaries of the contracts are open to public inspection and copying as otherwise provided by this chapter.

(2) Except for information described in subsection (1)(c)(i) of this section and confidential income data exempted from public inspection pursuant to RCW 84.40.020, the exemptions of this section are inapplicable to the extent that information, the disclosure of which would violate personal privacy or vital governmental interests, can be deleted from the specific records sought. No exemption may be construed to permit the nondisclosure of statistical information not descriptive of any readily identifiable person or persons.

(3) Inspection or copying of any specific records exempt under the provisions of this section may be permitted if the superior court in the county in which the record is maintained finds, after a hearing with notice thereof to every person in interest and the agency, that the exemption of such records is clearly unnecessary to protect any individual's right of privacy or any vital governmental function.

(4) Agency responses refusing, in whole or in part, inspection of any public record shall include a statement of the specific exemption authorizing the withholding of the record (or part) and a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the record withheld.

Sec. 2. Section 82.32.330, chapter 15, Laws of 1961 as last amended by section 12, chapter 138, Laws of 1984 and RCW 82.32.330 are each amended to read as follows:

Except as hereinafter provided it shall be unlawful for the department of revenue or any member, deputy, clerk, agent, employee, or representative thereof or any other person to make known or reveal any facts or information contained in any return filed by any taxpayer or disclosed in any investigation or examination of the taxpayer's books and records made in connection with the administration hereof. The foregoing, however, shall not be construed to prohibit the department of revenue or a member or employee thereof from: (1) Giving such facts or information in evidence in any court action involving tax imposed hereunder or involving a violation of the provisions hereof or involving another state department and the taxpayer; (2) giving such facts and information to the taxpayer or his duly authorized agent; (3) publishing statistics so classified as to prevent the identification of particular returns or reports or items thereof; (4) giving such facts or information, for official purposes only, to the governor or attorney general, or to any state department, agency, board, commission, council, or any committee or subcommittee of the legislature dealing with matters of taxation, revenue, trade, commerce, the control of industry or the professions; (5) permitting its records to be audited and examined by the proper state officer, his agents and employees; (6) giving any such facts or information to the proper officer of the internal revenue service of the United States or to the proper officer of the tax department of any state or city or town or county, for official purposes, but only if the statutes of the United States or of such other state or city or town or county, as the case may be, grants substantially similar privileges to the proper officers of this state; or (7) giving any such facts or information to the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms of the Department of the Treasury, or the army or navy departments of the United States, or any authorized representative thereof, for official purposes.

Any person acquiring knowledge of such facts or information in the course of his employment with the department of revenue and any person acquiring knowledge of such facts and information as provided under (4), (5), (6) and (7) above, who reveals or makes known any such facts or information to another not entitled to knowledge of such facts or information under the provisions of this section, shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding one thousand dollars and, if the offender or person guilty of such violation is an officer or employee of the state, he shall forfeit such office or employment and shall be incapable of holding any public office or employment in this state for a period of two years thereafter.