BP BHEAD INT H

AN ACT Relating to assistance for aerospace workers; amending RCW 43.63A.600 and 43.21J.010; adding a new section to chapter 50.12 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 43.20A RCW; and making appropriations.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 50.12 RCW to read as follows:

(1) Any office of the employment security department located in a county that has at least one thousand aerospace workers shall be staffed at a level consistent with providing the services necessary for prompt processing of claims for unemployment compensation, job counseling, and related services. The level of staffing shall be in accordance with predetermined job counselor to claimant norms.

(2) For the purposes of this section, "aerospace worker" means any employee of a company in which a minimum of twenty-five percent of the business involves aerospace, defense industry, or aviation-related products.

Sec. 2. RCW 43.63A.600 and 1994 c 114 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The department of community, trade, and economic development, as a member of the agency timber task force and in consultation with the economic recovery coordination board, shall establish and administer the emergency mortgage and rental assistance program. The department shall identify the communities most adversely affected by: (a) Reductions in timber harvest levels; and (b) unemployment in the aerospace industry, and shall prioritize assistance under this program to these communities. The department shall work with the department of social and health services and the timber recovery coordinator to develop the program in timber impact areas. Organizations eligible to receive grant funds for distribution under the program are those organizations that are eligible to receive assistance through the Washington housing trust fund. The department shall disburse the funds to eligible local organizations as grants. The local organizations shall use the funds to make grants or loans as specified in RCW 43.63A.600 through 43.63A.640. If funds are disbursed as loans, the local organization shall establish a revolving grant and loan fund with funds received as loan repayments and shall continue to make grants or loans or both grants and loans from funds received as loan repayments to dislocated forest products workers or unemployed aerospace workers eligible under the provisions of RCW 43.63A.600 through 43.63A.640 and to other persons residing in timber impact areas who meet the requirements of RCW 43.63A.600 through 43.63A.640.

(2) The goals of the program are to:

(a) Provide temporary emergency mortgage loans or rental assistance grants or loans on behalf of dislocated: (i) Forest products workers in timber impact areas; and (ii) aerospace workers in aerospace impact areas, who are unable to make mortgage, property tax, or rental payments on their permanent residences and are subject to immediate eviction for nonpayment of mortgage installments, property taxes, or nonpayment of rent;

(b) Prevent the dislocation of individuals and families from their permanent residences and their communities; and

(3) For purposes of this section:

(a) "Aerospace impact area" means a city, town, or unincorporated area that is affected by significant aerospace worker job losses.

(b) "Aerospace worker" means any employee of a business in which a minimum of twenty-five percent of the business involves aerospace, defense industry, or aviation-related products.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 43.20A RCW to read as follows:

(1) The department shall help families and workers in aerospace impact areas make the transition through economic difficulties and shall provide services to assist workers to gain marketable skills. The department, under an interagency agreement with the department of community, trade, and economic development, if appropriate, shall provide grants through the office of the secretary for local family support centers in aerospace impact areas to provide services to unemployed aerospace workers, including providing direct or referral services, establishing and operating service delivery programs, and coordinating delivery programs and delivery of services.

(2) Services provided through local family support centers are intended to support dislocated aerospace workers and their families and may include, but need not be limited to:

(a) General services such as: Credit counseling; social services including marital counseling; psychotherapy or psychological counseling; mortgage foreclosure and utilities problem counseling; drug and alcohol abuse services; medical services; and residential heating and food acquisition; and

(b) Family services such as: Parenting education; child development assessments; health and nutrition education; counseling; and information and referral services.

(3)(a) Grants to establish and operate local family support centers shall be awarded to community social services teams consisting of nonprofit organizations, state agencies, or both. Before the department makes a grant to establish a local family support center, the grantee must obtain an agreement with the community where the center is to be located that the community will provide twenty-five percent of the costs of operating the center.

(b) The department shall consult with the council on child abuse or neglect regarding grants for family support centers.

(4) For the purposes of this section:

(a) "Aerospace impact area" means a city, town, or unincorporated area that is affected by significant aerospace worker job losses.

(b) "Aerospace worker" means any employee of a business in which a minimum of twenty-five percent of the business involves aerospace, defense industry, or aviation-related products.

Sec. 4. RCW 43.21J.010 and 1993 c 516 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) It is the intent of this chapter to provide financial resources to make substantial progress toward: (a) Implementing the Puget Sound water quality management plan and other watershed-based management strategies and plans; (b) ameliorating degradation to watersheds; and (c) keeping and creating stable, environmentally sound, good wage employment in Washington state. The legislature intends that employment under this chapter is not to result in the displacement or partial displacement, whether by the reduction of hours of nonovertime work, wages, or other employment benefits, of currently employed workers, including but not limited to state civil service employees, or of currently or normally contracted services.

(2) It is the purpose of this chapter to:

(a) Implement clean water, forest, and habitat restoration projects that will produce measurable improvements in water and habitat quality, that rate highly when existing environmental ranking systems are applied, and that provide economic stability.

(b) Facilitate the coordination and consistency of federal, state, tribal, local, and private water and habitat protection and enhancement programs in the state's watersheds.

(d) Provide immediate funding to create jobs and training for environmental restoration and enhancement jobs for unemployed workers and displaced workers in impact areas, especially timber-dependent communities.

(3) For purposes of this chapter "impact areas" means: (a) Distressed counties as defined in RCW 43.165.010(3)(a); (b) subcounty areas in those counties not covered under (a) of this subsection that are timber impact areas as defined in RCW 43.31.601; (c) urban subcounty areas as defined in RCW 43.165.010(3)(c); ((~~and~~)) (d) aerospace impact areas; and (e) areas that the task force determines are likely to experience dislocations in the near future from downturns in natural resource-based industries.

(4) For purposes of this chapter, "high-risk youth" means youth eligible for Washington conservation corps programs under chapter 43.220 RCW or Washington service corps programs under chapter 50.65 RCW.

(5) For purposes of this chapter, "dislocated forest products worker" has the meaning set forth in RCW 50.70.010.

(6) For purposes of this chapter, "task force" means the environmental enhancement and job creation task force created under RCW 43.21J.030.

(7) For purposes of this section:

(a) "Aerospace impact area" means a city, town, or unincorporated area that is affected by significant aerospace worker job losses.

(b) "Aerospace worker" means any employee of a business in which a minimum of twenty-five percent of the business involves aerospace, defense industry, or aviation-related products.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. The sum of two hundred fifty thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1997, from the general fund to the department of community, trade, and economic development for the purposes of the emergency mortgage and rental assistance program for aerospace workers under section 2 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. The sum of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1997, from the general fund to the department of social and health services for the purposes of grants for services to aerospace workers under section 3 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. The sum of one million dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1997, from the general fund to the department of natural resources for the purposes of environmental restoration projects to aerospace workers under section 4 of this act.