HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 825

BYRepresentatives Walk and Fisher

Revising motor vehicle fund uses.

House Committe on Transportation

Majority Report:     Do pass.  (22)

     Signed by Representatives Walk, Chair; Baugher, Vice Chair; Cantwell, Day, Dellwo, Fisch, Fisher, Gallagher, Hankins, Haugen, Kremen, Meyers, Prince, Schmidt, C. Smith, D. Sommers, Spanel, Sutherland, Todd, K. Wilson, S. Wilson and Zellinsky.

Minority Report:     Do not pass.  (4)

     Signed by Representatives Betrozoff, Brough, Patrick and J. Williams.

House Staff:Robin Rettew (786-7306)

AS PASSED HOUSE MARCH 20, 1987

BACKGROUND:

Cities and towns receive 11.53 percent of the 17C portion of the gas tax. Of that distribution, 6.92 percent must be used for municipal street purposes, and 4.61 percent must be used for arterial highways and city streets.  There are restrictions on what kinds of work may be done with the distributions

Distributions must be used for the following purposes:  a) the construction, improvement, and repair of arterial highways and city streets; b) the maintenance of city streets as approved by the Department of Transportation State Aid Engineer for cities with populations 5,000 or less (larger cities may not use distributions for maintenance); and c) the payment of any municipal indebtedness incurred in the construction, improvement, and repair of arterial highways and city streets.

SUMMARY:

Distributions of the gas tax to cities and towns may be used for chip-sealing and seal coating on arterial highways and city streets.  Distributions may also be used for maintenance of arterial highways, as well as for streets in cities with a population of 15,000 or less, and approval by the Department of Transportation Engineer is no longer required.  Distributions may be used to pay for municipal indebtedness incurred for chip sealing and seal-coating.

Fiscal Note:    Not Requested.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:     Peter King, Association of Washington Cities.

House Committee - Testified Against: None Presented.

House Committee - Testimony For:     Chip sealing and seal-coating are routine projects which should be payable from gas tax distributions to cities and towns.

There is no need for the Department of Transportation State Aid Engineer to review all requests for maintenance projects in small cities since virtually all requests are approved.

Only small cities may use gas tax distributions for maintenance purposes.  Defining a small city as one with a population of 5,000 or less is too restrictive and should be expanded to 15,000.

House Committee - Testimony Against: None Presented.