S-2223.1  _______________________________________________

               SUBSTITUTE SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 8016

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      54th Legislature     1995 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Ecology & Parks (originally sponsored by Senators McAuliffe, Swecker, Fraser, C. Anderson and Long)

Read first time 03/01/95.

Petitioning Congress to enact legislation that protects local governments' ability to repay debts on solid waste facilities.

    TO THE HONORABLE BILL CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

    We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

    WHEREAS, Flow control is the legal authority to determine where solid waste generated within a jurisdiction shall be sent for processing or disposal; and

    WHEREAS, Flow control authority has been delegated by state legislature to local governments in Washington state; and

    WHEREAS, Because flow control authority was generally upheld legally until recently and because the authority was properly delegated to local governments by the state of Washington, many counties, cities, and towns believed themselves empowered to flow control the solid waste generated within their respective jurisdictions; and

    WHEREAS, Local jurisdictions have financed facilities and developed programs, and in many instances assumed considerable debt, based upon their flow control authority; and

    WHEREAS, In May 1994, the United States Supreme Court found flow control authority to be an unconstitutional infringement of congress' exclusive power to regulate interstate commerce; and

    WHEREAS, This decision puts at risk many local governments' ability to protect and repay their significant investments in solid waste facilities and services, thus threatening their solvency; and

    WHEREAS, It is appropriate that congress enact legislation to enable local governments to protect and repay their investments in solid waste handling and disposal facilities, since doing so will serve the immediate and long-term interests of taxpayers and solid waste service customers; and

    WHEREAS, Continued local authority over flow control would enable local governments to protect and repay investments based on their previously accepted flow control authority;

    NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that congress expeditiously enact legislation which is at least as protective of local governments' ability to repay those debts on their solid waste facilities which they assumed based on previously accepted local flow control authority, as was the legislation which nearly passed during the 1994 congressional session.

    BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.

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