H-3884.1          _______________________________________________

                                  HOUSE BILL 2397

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State of Washington              54th Legislature             1996 Regular Session

By Representatives Boldt, Sheldon, Kessler, Hatfield, Fuhrman, Buck, Basich and Benton

Read first time 01/10/96.  Referred to Committee on Natural Resources.

Allowing county excise taxation of harvesters of timber on publicly owned land.

     AN ACT Relating to county excise tax on harvesters of timber; and amending RCW 84.33.051.

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

     Sec. 1.  RCW 84.33.051 and 1984 c 204 s 8 are each amended to read as follows:

     (1) The legislative body of any county may impose a tax upon every person engaging in the county in business as a harvester effective October 1, 1984.  The tax shall be equal to the stumpage value of timber harvested from privately or publicly owned land multiplied by a rate of four percent.

     (2) Before the effective date of any ordinance imposing a tax under this section, the county shall contract with the department of revenue for administration and collection of the tax.  The tax collected by the department of revenue under this section shall be deposited by the department in the timber tax distribution account.  Moneys in the account may be spent only for distributions to counties under RCW 84.33.081 and, after appropriation by the legislature, for the activities undertaken by the department of revenue relating to the collection and administration of the taxes imposed under this section and RCW 84.33.041.  Appropriations are not required for distributions to counties under RCW 84.33.081.

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