HB 1817-S.E - DIGEST

(AS OF HOUSE 2ND READING 3/9/99)

     Provides that funding of the operating budget of the horticultural pest and disease board may be derived from any or all of the following:  (1) Moneys from the county general fund or other general revenues, as appropriated by the board of county commissioners or other county legislative authority;

     (2) a horticultural tax, as authorized in RCW 15.08.260, levied by the county board of commissioners or other county legislative authority; or

     (3) an assessment against all lands, except forest lands used solely for the planting, growing, or harvesting of trees and which are typified, except during a single period of five years following clear-cut logging, by canopies so dense as to prohibit growth of an understory.  Declares that the exemption provided by this subsection does not apply to any lands used to raise hardwood trees such as, but not limited to, hybrid cottonwoods and cultivated by agricultural methods in growing cycles shorter than twelve years.

     Repeals RCW 15.09.130.