FINAL BILL REPORT

                  HB 2692

                          C 93 L 96

                     Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Correcting RCW internal references.

Sponsors:  Representatives Sheahan, Dellwo, Appelwick and Hickel; by request of Statute Law Committee.

House Committee on Law & Justice

Senate Committee on Law & Justice

Background:  Sometimes legislation results in the reordering or renumbering of provisions within a particular statute.  Other bills enacted during the same legislative session may inadvertently refer to subsection numbers within the statute that are no longer correct.  Similarly, sometimes as a bill goes through the legislative process, particular provisions within the bill are reordered, and other bills attempting to refer to a particular provision in the bill may ultimately fail to refer to the intended provision.  When these events occur, the code reviser may ask for legislation making technical corrections to statutory internal references.

During the 1995 session, the Legislature enacted Initiative 159, which amended numerous statutes addressing penalties for armed crime.  The initiative applied deadly weapon enhancements to all felonies, except specified offenses that necessarily involve the use of a firearm.  The initiative established one set of enhancements if the deadly weapon is a firearm, and a different set of enhancements if the deadly weapon is other than a firearm.  Those provisions are contained in different subsections.

In separate legislation, the Legislature also amended a sentencing statute to create a special drug offender sentencing alternative.  The alternative is not to be available to offenders whose violations involve a "deadly weapon" enhancement.  This provision fails to cross-reference both subsections concerning deadly weapons as passed in the initiative.

Finally, in recent years, the Legislature enacted new definitions regarding business and occupation taxes.  A current statute referring to those definitions by statutory citation is now incomplete.

Summary:  References to renumbered sections and subsections are corrected.

An offender is ineligible for the special drug offender sentencing alternative if the violation involves a deadly weapon enhancement under either subsection of the law as it passed in Initiative 159.

The reference to definitions regarding business and occupation taxes is expanded.

Votes on Final Passage:

House     97 0

Senate    46 0

Effective:  June 6, 1996