FINAL BILL REPORT

                 SHB 1060

                          C 46 L 97

                     Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Authorizing Washington wildlife and recreation program projects for fiscal year 1997.

Sponsors: By House Committee on Capital Budget (originally sponsored by Representatives Sehlin, Ogden, Hankins, Grant, Keiser, Scott, Dickerson, Cole, Conway, Quall, Lantz, Cody, Murray, Costa, Morris, Linville, Anderson and Chopp; by request of Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation).

House Committee on Capital Budget

Senate Committee on Ways & Means

Background:  The Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program (WWRP), administered by the Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation (IAC), provides capital grants to state and local governments for acquisition and development of recreation and habitat conservation lands.  WWRP funding, appropriated in the state capital budget, is directed by statute into seven project categories: local parks, state parks, trails, water access, urban wildlife habitat, critical habitat, and natural areas.

A local government may apply for WWRP grants annually.  A state agency may only apply for WWRP funding biennially.  However, a state agency may reapply for funding during the second year of the biennium for projects that were approved but were not funded the first year.  Projects are competitively scored and ranked by the IAC within each category using uniform criteria.

Each year, the IAC recommends a ranked list of projects to the Governor and Legislature for possible funding.  Alternate projects are included on the list in the event that higher-ranked projects are not able to proceed.  The Governor and Legislature may delete projects from, but not add projects to, the recommended list.  The state capital budget, through a proviso attached to the WWRP appropriation, has traditionally been used as the vehicle to express legislative approval of the proposed WWRP project list.

The capital budget appropriated $45 million for the WWRP during the 1995-97 biennium.  During the 1995 Session, the Legislature approved a list of 45 projects totaling $36.8 million and 48 alternate projects for fiscal year 1996.  The fiscal year 1997 list of WWRP projects, proposed during the 1996 Session, included 26 projects totaling $8.2 million and 31 alternate projects.  The fiscal year 1997 list received approval in both the House and Senate versions of the 1996 supplemental capital budget.  It did not receive final approval, however, because the supplemental capital budget did not pass the Legislature.

Of the 26 projects included on the proposed fiscal year 1997 list, 10 projects totaling $3.9 million were previously approved as alternates on the fiscal year 1996 list and were therefore eligible to receive WWRP funding in the absence of the supplemental capital budget.  The IAC provided grants to these projects in 1996.  The remaining 16 projects totaling $4.2 million have not received funding.

Summary:  The fiscal year 1997 list of WWRP projects is approved.  The list includes 16 projects totaling $4.2 million, and nine alternate projects.

Votes on Final Passage:

House  97 0

Senate 44 0

Effective:April 16, 1997