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ENGROSSED
HOUSE BILL 2347
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Passed
Legislature - 1992 Regular Session
State of Washington 52nd
Legislature 1992 Regular Session
Read first time 01/15/92.
Referred to Committee on Energy & Utilities.Changing
municipal electric utility access to high voltage transmission facilities.
AN ACT
Relating to municipal electric utility access to high voltage transmission
facilities; and amending RCW 35.92.052.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE
OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
35.92.052 and 1989 c 249 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
Cities of the first class which operate electric generating facilities and
distribution systems shall have power and authority to participate and enter
into agreements for the use or undivided ownership of high voltage
transmission facilities and capacity rights in those facilities and for
the undivided ownership of any type of electric generating plants and
facilities, including, but not limited to, nuclear and other thermal power
generating plants and facilities and transmission facilities including, but not
limited to, related transmission facilities, to be called "common
facilities"; and for the planning, financing, acquisition, construction,
operation, and maintenance with: (a) Each other; (b) electrical companies
which are subject to the jurisdiction of the Washington utilities and
transportation commission or the regulatory commission of any other state, to
be called "regulated utilities"; (c) rural electric cooperatives,
including generation and transmission cooperatives in any state; (d) municipal
corporations, utility districts, or other political subdivisions in any state;
and (e) any agency of the United States authorized to generate or transmit
electrical energy. It shall be provided in such agreements that each city
shall use or own a percentage of any common facility equal to the
percentage of the money furnished or the value of property supplied by it for
the acquisition and construction of or additions or improvements to the
facility and shall own and control or provide for the use of a like
percentage of the electrical transmission or output. A city using or
owning common facilities under this section may issue revenue bonds or other
obligations to finance the city's share of the use or ownership of the common
facilities.
(2)
The agreement must provide that each participant shall defray its own interest
and other payments required to be made or deposited in connection with any
financing undertaken by it to pay its percentage of the money furnished or
value of property supplied by it for the planning, acquisition, and
construction of any common facility, or any additions or betterments. The
agreement shall provide a uniform method of determining and allocating
operation and maintenance expenses of a common facility.
(3)
Each city participating in the ownership, use, or operation of a common
facility shall pay all taxes chargeable to its share of the common facility and
the electric energy generated under any applicable statutes and may make
payments during preliminary work and construction for any increased financial
burden suffered by any county or other existing taxing district in the county
in which the common facility is located, under agreement with such county or
taxing district.
(4) In
carrying out the powers granted in this section, each such city shall be
severally liable only for its own acts and not jointly or severally liable for
the acts, omissions, or obligations of others. No money or property supplied
by any such city for the planning, financing, acquisition, construction,
operation, or maintenance of, or addition or improvement to any common
facility shall be credited or otherwise applied to the account of any other
participant therein, nor shall the undivided share of any city in any common
facility be charged, directly or indirectly, with any debt or obligation of any
other participant or be subject to any lien as a result thereof. No action in
connection with a common facility shall be binding upon any city unless
authorized or approved by resolution or ordinance of its governing body.
(5)
Any city acting jointly outside the state of Washington, by mutual agreement
with any participant under authority of this section, shall not acquire
properties owned or operated by any public utility district, by any regulated
utility, or by any public utility owned by a municipality without the consent
of the utility owning or operating the property, and shall not participate in
any condemnation proceeding to acquire such properties.
Passed the
House February 11, 1992.
Passed the
Senate February 28, 1992.
Approved by the Governor March 20, 1992.
Filed in Office of Secretary
of State March 20, 1992.
