H-2961.1  _______________________________________________

                          HOUSE BILL 2553

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      57th Legislature     2002 Regular Session

By Representatives Morris, Pflug, Dunshee, Clements, Conway, Chase, Rockefeller and Veloria

Read first time 01/21/2002.  Referred to Committee on Finance.

Increasing the number of eligible tribes for cigarette tax contracts.

    AN ACT Relating to increasing the number of eligible tribes for cigarette tax contracts; and amending RCW 43.06.460.

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

    Sec. 1.  RCW 43.06.460 and 2001 2nd sp.s. c 21 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

    (1) The governor is authorized to enter into cigarette tax contracts with the Squaxin Island Tribe, the Nisqually Tribe, Tulalip Tribes, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, the Quinault Nation, the Jamestown S'Klallam Indian Tribe, the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe, the Stillaguamish Tribe, the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, the Skokomish Indian Tribe, the Yakama Nation, the Suquamish Tribe, the Nooksack Indian Tribe, the Lummi Nation, the Chehalis Confederated Tribes, ((and)) the Upper Skagit Tribe, the Snoqualmie Tribe, and the Swinomish Tribe.  Each contract adopted under this section shall provide that the tribal cigarette tax rate be one hundred percent of the state cigarette and state and local sales and use taxes within three years of enacting the tribal tax and shall be set no lower than eighty percent of the state cigarette and state and local sales and use taxes during the three-year phase-in period.  The three-year phase-in period shall be shortened by three months each quarter the number of cartons of nontribal manufactured cigarettes is at least ten percent or more than the quarterly average number of cartons of nontribal manufactured cigarettes from the six-month period preceding the imposition of the tribal tax under the contract.  Sales at a retailer operation not in existence as of the date a tribal tax under this section is imposed are subject to the full rate of the tribal tax under the contract.  The tribal cigarette tax is in lieu of the state cigarette and state and local sales and use taxes, as provided in RCW 43.06.455(3).

    (2) A cigarette tax contract under this section is subject to RCW 43.06.455.

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