BILL REQ. #:  H-4447.1 

READ FIRST TIME 03/03/14.   

     AN ACT Relating to wildlife conflict funding to encourage proactive measures; amending RCW 77.36.070; adding a new section to chapter 77.36 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 77.36.070 and 2009 c 333 s 59 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The department may pay no more than one hundred twenty thousand dollars per fiscal year from the state wildlife account created in RCW 77.12.170 for claims and assessment costs for damage to commercial crops caused by wild deer or elk submitted under RCW 77.36.100.
     (2) If any money authorized for expenditure under subsection (1) of this section is unspent as of June 30th of a fiscal year, the state treasurer shall transfer the unexpended money to the wildlife conflict account created in section 2 of this act.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 77.36 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The wildlife conflict account is created in the custody of the state treasurer. Any transfers of money under RCW 77.36.070 must be deposited in the account. The department may also deposit into the account any grants, gifts, or donations to the state for the purposes of providing compensation for property damage. Consistent with this chapter, expenditures from the account may be used only for prevention, mitigation, assessment, and payments for injury or loss of property caused by deer, elk, bears, wolves, or cougars. Only the director or the director's designee may authorize expenditures from the account. The account is subject to allotment procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW, but an appropriation is not required for expenditures.
     (2)(a) The department must maintain a list of claims submitted under RCW 77.36.100 that have been approved for payment but not yet been fully paid by the department. The list of claims must be organized chronologically by the date the injury or loss of property caused by deer, elk, bears, wolves, or cougars occurred. As funding becomes available to the department under this section, or from any other source, the department must pay claims in the chronologic order they appear on the list. The department must maintain, and is authorized to pay, claims that appear on the list due to injury or loss that occurred in a previous fiscal biennium.
     (b) The payment of a claim included on the list maintained by the department under this section is conditional on the availability of specific funding for this purpose and is not a guarantee of reimbursement.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   If specific funding for the purposes of this act, referencing this act by bill or chapter number, is not provided by June 30, 2014, in the omnibus appropriations act, this act is null and void.