H-0444.3 _______________________________________________
HOUSE BILL 1291
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State of Washington 55th Legislature 1997 Regular Session
By Representatives Radcliff, D. Schmidt, O'Brien, Costa, Linville, Ballasiotes, Morris, Mitchell, Wood, Scott, Blalock, Mason, Conway and Kessler
Read first time 01/21/97. Referred to Committee on Finance.
AN ACT Relating to affordable housing; adding a new section to chapter 82.14 RCW; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that:
(a) Reductions in federal funding have impacted the ability of local governments to meet the housing needs of very low-income households and households with special needs populations;
(b) More federal funding sources require local governments to meet matching requirements in order to receive funds; and
(c) The lack of fund sources at the local level limits the ability of local governments to leverage limited federal funds.
(2) It is the intent of the legislature to:
(a) Develop a source of funding that can be used to meet public and private funding source matching requirements for the development of housing for very low-income households and households with special needs populations; and
(b) Encourage the development of locally based affordable housing financing plans designed to expand the availability of housing that is decent, safe, affordable, and appropriate to the living needs of very low-income households and households with special needs populations in the county.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 82.14 RCW to read as follows:
(1) The legislative authority of a county may impose a sales and use tax in accordance with the terms of this chapter. The tax is in addition to other taxes authorized by law and shall be collected from those persons who are taxable by the state under chapters 82.08 and 82.12 RCW upon the occurrence of any taxable event within the county. The rate of tax shall not exceed .00034 percent of the selling price in the case of a sales tax or value of the article used in the case of a use tax.
(2) The tax imposed under subsection (1) of this section shall be credited against the tax otherwise required to be collected or paid over to the department of revenue under chapter 82.08 or 82.12 RCW. The department of revenue shall perform the collection of such taxes on behalf of the county at no cost to the county.
(3) Moneys collected under this section shall only be used to finance affordable housing for very low-income households.
(4) No tax may be collected under this section until:
(a) The legislative authority of the county declares the existence of an emergency with respect to the availability of housing that is affordable to very low-income households in the county; and
(b) The legislative authority of the county adopts an affordable housing financing plan to serve as the plan for expenditure of funds raised under this section and the legislative authority of the county determines that the affordable housing financing plan is consistent with either the locally adopted or state-adopted comprehensive housing affordability strategy, required under the Cranston-Gonzalez national affordable housing act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 12701 et seq.), as amended.
(5) "Very low-income household" means a single person, family, or unrelated persons living together whose income is at or below fifty percent of the median income, as determined by the United States department of housing and urban development, with adjustments for household size, for the county where the taxing district is located.
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