House of Representatives                     P.O. Box 40600

Office of Program Research            Olympia WA 98504-0600

Finance Committee                        Phone 360-786-7100

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HB 1341

Bill Analysis

February 6, 1997

Brief Description:  Making technical corrections for tax provisions.

Bill Sponsors:  Representatives Thompson, Dunshee, B. Thomas and Wensman.

Staff:  Linda Brooks (786-7153)

Background:  Some excise and property tax statutes:

Cmake gender-specific references;

Ccontain outdated provisions;

Cinclude numerically out-of-sequence references to other statutes; or

Ccontain incorrect cross references  (as the result of a statute being amended without simultaneously updating other statutes that make reference to the amended statute).

Business and occupation (B&O) and property tax statutes define agricultural products differently, although in practical terms the universe of Aagricultural products@ is the same under both definitions.

Summary of Bill:  The following technical corrections are made to excise and property tax statutes:

Creplaces gender-specific references with gender-neutral terms;

Cdeletes outdated provisions;

Cre-orders cites to other statutes so that the cites are in numeric sequential order; or

Cre-numbers subsections in statutes that make reference to a statute that was amended last year so that the original legislative intent is preserved.

The business and occupation (B&O) tax definition of agricultural products defines agricultural products for property-tax purposes too.

Fiscal Note:  Available

Effective Date:  If enacted, bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment.