BP BHEAD INT S [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to the ad valorem taxation of vessels or ferries used for the conveyance for compensation of either persons or property, or both, between fixed termini or over a regular route; amending RCW 84.12.200, 84.12.280, 84.12.330, 84.12.360, 84.36.080, and 84.40.036; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 84.12.200 and 1994 c 124 s 13 are each amended to read as follows:

For the purposes of this chapter and unless otherwise required by the context:

(1) "Department" without other designation means the department of revenue of the state of Washington.

(2) "Railroad company" means and includes any person owning or operating a railroad, street railway, suburban railroad or interurban railroad in this state, whether its line of railroad be maintained at the surface, or above or below the surface of the earth, or by whatever power its vehicles are transported; or owning any station, depot, terminal or bridge for railroad purposes, as owner, lessee or otherwise.

(3) "Airplane company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the conveyance and transportation of persons and/or property by aircraft, and engaged in the business of transporting persons and/or property for compensation, as owner, lessee or otherwise.

(4) "Electric light and power company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the generation, transmission or distribution of electricity in this state, and engaged in the business of furnishing, transmitting, distributing or generating electrical energy for light, heat or power for compensation as owner, lessee or otherwise.

(5) "Telegraph company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing any telegraph or cable line in this state, with appliances for the transmission of messages, and engaged in the business of furnishing telegraph service for compensation, as owner, lessee or otherwise.

(6) "Telephone company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the transmission of communication by telephone in this state-owned or controlled exchanges and/or switchboards, and engaged in the business of furnishing telephonic communication for compensation as owner, lessee or otherwise.

(7) "Gas company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the manufacture, transportation, or distribution of natural or manufactured gas in this state, and engaged for compensation in the business of furnishing gas for light, heat, power or other use, as owner, lessee or otherwise.

(8) "Pipe line company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the conveyance or transportation of oils, natural or manufactured gas and/or other substances, except water, by pipe line in this state, and engaged in such business for compensation, as owner, lessee or otherwise.

(9) (("Steamboat company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the conveyance and transportation of persons and/or property by vessel or ferry, upon the waters within this state, including the rivers and lakes and Puget Sound, between fixed termini or over a regular route, and engaged in the business of transporting persons and/or property for compensation as owner, lessee or otherwise.

~~(10)~~)) "Logging railroad company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the conveyance and transportation of forest products by rail in this state, and engaged in the business of transporting forest products either as private carrier or carrier for hire.

((~~(11)~~)) (10) "Person" means and includes any individual, firm, copartnership, joint venture, association, corporation, trust, or any other group acting as a unit, whether mutual, cooperative or otherwise, and/or trustees or receivers appointed by any court.

((~~(12)~~)) (11) "Company" means and includes any railroad company, ((~~motor vehicle transportation company,~~)) airplane company, electric light and power company, telegraph company, telephone company, gas company, pipe line company, ((~~steamboat company,~~)) or logging railroad company; and the term "companies" means and includes all of such companies.

((~~(13)~~)) (12) "Operating property" means and includes all property, real and personal, owned by any company, or held by it as occupant, lessee or otherwise, including all franchises and lands, buildings, rights-of-way, water powers, motor vehicles, wagons, horses, aircraft, aerodromes, hangars, office furniture, water mains, gas mains, pipe lines, pumping stations, tanks, tank farms, holders, reservoirs, telephone lines, telegraph lines, transmission and distribution lines, dams, generating plants, poles, wires, cables, conduits, switch boards, devices, appliances, instruments, equipment, machinery, ((~~vessels, ferries,~~)) landing slips, docks, roadbeds, tracks, terminals, rolling stock equipment, appurtenances and all other property of a like or different kind, situate within the state of Washington, used by the company in the conduct of its operations; and, in case of personal property used partly within and partly without the state, it means and includes a proportion of such personal property to be determined as in this chapter provided.

((~~(14)~~)) (13) "Nonoperating property" means all physical property owned by any company, other than that used during the preceding calendar year in the conduct of its operations. It includes all lands and/or buildings wholly used by any person other than the owning company. In cases where lands and/or buildings are used partially by the owning company in the conduct of its operations and partially by any other person not assessable under this chapter under lease, sublease, or other form of tenancy, the operating and nonoperating property of the company whose property is assessed hereunder shall be determined by the department of revenue in such manner as will, in its judgment, secure the separate valuation of such operating and nonoperating property upon a fair and equitable basis. The amount of operating revenue received from tenants or occupants of property of the owning company shall not be considered material in determining the classification of such property.

Sec. 2. RCW 84.12.280 and 1997 c 3 s 114 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) In making the assessment of the operating property of any railroad or logging railroad company and in the apportionment of the values and the taxation thereof, all land occupied and claimed exclusively as the right-of-way for railroads, with all the tracks and substructures and superstructures which support the same, together with all side tracks, second tracks, turn-outs, station houses, depots, round houses, machine shops, or other buildings belonging to the company, used in the operation thereof, without separating the same into land and improvements, shall be assessed as real property. And the rolling stock and other movable property belonging to any railroad or logging railroad company shall be considered as personal property and taxed as such: PROVIDED, That all of the operating property of street railway companies shall be assessed and taxed as personal property.

(2) All of the operating property of airplane companies, telegraph companies, pipe line companies, ((~~water companies and toll bridge companies; the floating equipment of steamboat companies,~~)) and all of the operating property other than lands and buildings of electric light and power companies, telephone companies, and gas companies ((~~and heating companies~~)) shall be assessed and taxed as personal property.

(3) Notwithstanding subsections (1) and (2) of this section, the limit provided under RCW 84.40.0305 shall be applied in the assessment of property under this section to the same extent as that limit is generally applied to property not assessed under this chapter.

Sec. 3. RCW 84.12.330 and 1997 c 3 s 116 are each amended to read as follows:

Upon the assessment roll shall be placed after the name of each company a general description of the operating property of the company, which shall be considered sufficient if described in the language of RCW 84.12.200((~~(13)~~)) (12), as applied to the company, following which shall be entered the assessed value of the operating property as determined by the department of revenue. No assessment shall be invalidated by reason of a mistake in the name of the company assessed, or the omission of the name of the owner or by the entry as owner of a name other than that of the true owner. When the department of revenue shall have prepared the assessment roll and entered thereon the assessed value of the operating property of the company, as herein required, it shall notify the company by mail of the valuation determined by it and entered upon the roll.

Sec. 4. RCW 84.12.360 and 1997 c 3 s 118 are each amended to read as follows:

The value of the operating property assessed to a company, as fixed and determined by the department of revenue, shall be apportioned by the department of revenue to the respective counties and to the taxing districts thereof wherein such property is located in the following manner:

(1) Property of all railroad companies other than street railroad companies, telegraph companies and pipe line companies‑-upon the basis of that proportion of the value of the total operating property within the state which the mileage of track, as classified by the department of revenue (in case of railroads), mileage of wire (in the case of telegraph companies), and mileage of pipe line (in the case of pipe line companies) within each county or taxing district bears to the total mileage thereof within the state, at the end of the calendar year last past. For the purpose of such apportionment the department may classify railroad track.

(2) Property of street railroad companies, telephone companies, electric light and power companies, and gas companies((~~, water companies, heating companies and toll bridge companies~~))‑-upon the basis of relative value of the operating property within each county and taxing district to the value of the total operating property within the state to be determined by such factors as the department of revenue shall deem proper.

(3) Planes or other aircraft of airplane companies ((~~and watercraft of steamboat companies~~))‑-upon the basis of such factor or factors of allocation, to be determined by the department of revenue, as will secure a substantially fair and equitable division between counties and other taxing districts.

All other property of airplane companies ((~~and steamboat companies~~))‑-upon the basis set forth in subsection (2) of this section.

The basis of apportionment with reference to all public utility companies above prescribed shall not be deemed exclusive and the department of revenue in apportioning values of such companies may also take into consideration such other information, facts, circumstances, or allocation factors as will enable it to make a substantially just and correct valuation of the operating property of such companies within the state and within each county thereof.

Sec. 5. RCW 84.36.080 and 1986 c 229 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) All ships and vessels which are exempt from excise tax under subsection (2) of RCW 82.49.020 and excepted from the registration requirements of subsection (10) of RCW 88.02.030 shall be and are hereby made exempt from all ad valorem taxes, except taxes levied for any state purpose.

(2) All ships and vessels listed in the state or federal register of historical places are exempt from all ad valorem taxes.

Sec. 6. RCW 84.40.036 and 1986 c 229 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) As used in this section, "apportionable vessel" means a ship or vessel((~~, other than one operated by a steamboat company as defined in RCW 84.12.200,~~)) which is:

(a) Engaged in interstate commerce;

(b) Engaged in foreign commerce; and/or

(c) Engaged exclusively in fishing, tendering, harvesting, and/or processing seafood products on the high seas or waters under the jurisdiction of other states.

(2) The value of each apportionable vessel shall be apportioned to this state based on the number of days or fractions of days that the vessel is within this state during the preceding calendar year: PROVIDED, That if the total number of days the vessel is within the limits of the state does not exceed one hundred twenty for the preceding calendar year, no value shall be apportioned to this state. For the purposes of this subsection (2), a fraction of a day means more than sixteen hours in a calendar day.

(3) ((~~Days~~)) Time during which an apportionable vessel is in the state ((~~exclusively~~)) for one or more of the following purposes shall not be considered as ((~~days~~)) time within this state, if the length of time is reasonable for the purpose:

(a) Undergoing repair or alteration;

(b) Taking on or discharging cargo, passengers, or supplies; and

(4) Days during which an apportionable vessel leaves this state only while navigating the high seas in order to travel between points in this state shall be considered as days within this state.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. This act takes effect January 1, 1999.