H-1946.1  _______________________________________________

                          HOUSE BILL 2041

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State of Washington      54th Legislature     1995 Regular Session

By Representatives Sommers and Chopp

Read first time 02/22/95.  Referred to Committee on Capital Budget.

Studying a pooled revenue distribution system for managing state lands.

    AN ACT Relating to the study of a pooled revenue distribution system for managing state lands; and creating new sections.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  The legislature finds that state trust land revenues provide an important funding source for school construction, state facilities, and local governments and that it is in the best interest of citizens of the state to ensure a consistent and predictable flow of trust revenues for these purposes.  Further, the legislature finds that the traditional financial practices utilized in this state for managing trust revenues do not serve to insulate trust beneficiaries from the year-to-year variations in harvest and income that result from natural forces or environmental policy decisions.  The purpose of this act is to evaluate the feasibility of developing an alternative trust land revenue management system that provides for a more consistent and predictable revenue stream to trust beneficiaries.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  The board of natural resources shall evaluate the feasibility of establishing a pooled revenue distribution system for state lands, as defined in RCW 79.01.004.  For the purposes of this section, a "pooled revenue distribution system" means a system that distributes revenues to each trust beneficiary based on the proportional net present value of revenue forecasted for each trust ownership over a defined time period.  Actual revenue distribution to each trust during a fiscal period would be based on the assigned proportional benefit multiplied by the actual total revenues produced from all state lands during the period.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  The board shall report to the legislature on its evaluation, including any recommendations for implementation, by November 1, 1995.  The report shall include necessary modifications to the legal framework governing state trust land revenues, a proposed valuation methodology, as well as a forecast of potential revenue distributions using a pooled revenue distribution system.

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