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.
