AN ACT
Relating to taxation of railroad-related businesses; amending RCW 82.16.010 and
82.16.020; and declaring an emergency.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE
OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
82.16.010 and 1994 c 163 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
For
the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise required by the context:
(1)
"Railroad business" means the business of operating any railroad, by
whatever power operated, for public use in the conveyance of persons or
property for hire. It shall not, however, include any business herein defined
as an urban transportation business.
(2)
"Express business" means the business of carrying property for public
hire on the line of any common carrier operated in this state, when such common
carrier is not owned or leased by the person engaging in such business.
(3)
"Railroad car business" means the business of ((renting, leasing
or)) operating stock cars, furniture cars, refrigerator cars, fruit cars,
poultry cars, tank cars, sleeping cars, parlor cars, buffet cars, tourist cars,
or any other kinds of cars used for transportation of property or persons upon
the line of any railroad operated in this state when such railroad is not owned
or leased by the person engaging in such business.
(4)
"Water distribution business" means the business of operating a plant
or system for the distribution of water for hire or sale.
(5)
"Light and power business" means the business of operating a plant or
system for the generation, production or distribution of electrical energy for
hire or sale and/or for the wheeling of electricity for others.
(6)
"Telegraph business" means the business of affording telegraphic
communication for hire.
(7)
"Gas distribution business" means the business of operating a plant
or system for the production or distribution for hire or sale of gas, whether
manufactured or natural.
(8)
"Motor transportation business" means the business (except urban
transportation business) of operating any motor propelled vehicle by which
persons or property of others are conveyed for hire, and includes, but is not
limited to, the operation of any motor propelled vehicle as an auto
transportation company (except urban transportation business), common carrier
or contract carrier as defined by RCW 81.68.010 and 81.80.010: PROVIDED, That
"motor transportation business" shall not mean or include the
transportation of logs or other forest products exclusively upon private roads
or private highways.
(9)
"Urban transportation business" means the business of operating any
vehicle for public use in the conveyance of persons or property for hire,
insofar as (a) operating entirely within the corporate limits of any city or
town, or within five miles of the corporate limits thereof, or (b) operating
entirely within and between cities and towns whose corporate limits are not
more than five miles apart or within five miles of the corporate limits of
either thereof. Included herein, but without limiting the scope hereof, is the
business of operating passenger vehicles of every type and also the business of
operating cartage, pickup, or delivery services, including in such services the
collection and distribution of property arriving from or destined to a point
within or without the state, whether or not such collection or distribution be
made by the person performing a local or interstate line-haul of such property.
(10)
"Public service business" means any of the businesses defined in
subdivisions (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), and (9) or any business
subject to control by the state, or having the powers of eminent domain and the
duties incident thereto, or any business hereafter declared by the legislature to
be of a public service nature, except telephone business as defined in RCW
82.04.065 and low-level radioactive waste site operating companies as redefined
in RCW 81.04.010. It includes, among others, without limiting the scope
hereof: Airplane transportation, boom, dock, ferry, pipe line, toll bridge,
toll logging road, water transportation and wharf businesses.
(11)
"Tugboat business" means the business of operating tugboats,
towboats, wharf boats or similar vessels in the towing or pushing of vessels,
barges or rafts for hire.
(12)
"Gross income" means the value proceeding or accruing from the
performance of the particular public service or transportation business
involved, including operations incidental thereto, but without any deduction on
account of the cost of the commodity furnished or sold, the cost of materials
used, labor costs, interest, discount, delivery costs, taxes, or any other
expense whatsoever paid or accrued and without any deduction on account of
losses.
(13)
The meaning attributed, in chapter 82.04 RCW, to the term "tax year,"
"person," "value proceeding or accruing,"
"business," "engaging in business," "in this
state," "within this state," "cash discount" and
"successor" shall apply equally in the provisions of this chapter.
Sec.
2. RCW
82.16.020 and 1989 c 302 s 204 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
There is levied and there shall be collected from every person a tax for the
act or privilege of engaging within this state in any one or more of the
businesses herein mentioned. The tax shall be equal to the gross income of the
business, multiplied by the rate set out after the business, as follows:
(a) ((Railroad,))
Express, ((railroad car,)) sewerage collection, and telegraph
businesses: Three and six-tenths percent;
(b)
Light and power business: Three and sixty-two one-hundredths percent;
(c)
Gas distribution business: Three and six-tenths percent;
(d)
Urban transportation business: Six-tenths of one percent;
(e)
Vessels under sixty-five feet in length, except tugboats, operating upon the
waters within the state: Six-tenths of one percent;
(f)
Motor transportation, railroad, railroad car, and tugboat businesses,
and all public service businesses other than ones mentioned above: One and
eight-tenths of one percent;
(g)
Water distribution business: Four and seven-tenths percent.
(2) An
additional tax is imposed equal to the rate specified in RCW 82.02.030
multiplied by the tax payable under subsection (1) of this section.
(3)
Twenty percent of the moneys collected under subsection (1) of this section on
water distribution businesses and sixty percent of the moneys collected under
subsection (1) of this section on sewerage collection businesses shall be
deposited in the public works assistance account created in RCW 43.155.050.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. This act
is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or
safety, or support of the state government and its existing public
institutions, and shall take effect immediately.
