[atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to establishing the agricultural conservation easements program; adding new sections to chapter 43.23 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. Among the rising costs that are increasingly driving Washington farmers out of business is the cost of land. Many of our oldest, well-established farms, often on the fringes of established communities, are under growing pressure to be sold for uses other than agriculture. In the face of these rising land costs, new farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to be able to afford to purchase farmland.

At the same time, the conversion of these prime farmlands to development costs our communities open and green space, reduces our access to local quality food, diminishes our cultural and historic roots, often represents a fiscal loss for governments, and frequently results in environmental costs including reduced flood detention, loss of surface water filtration, diminished aquifer recharge, loss of habitat and connective wildlife migration corridors, and loss of opportunities to protect riparian lands.

These concerns, among others, are leading the federal government and local jurisdictions around our state to provide funding for local programs to purchase agricultural conservation easements that help keep farmers in farming and farmland in agriculture. It is the intent of the legislature to create a Washington purchase of agricultural conservation easements program that will facilitate the use of federal funds, ease the burdens of local governments launching similar programs at the local level, and help local governments fight the conversion of agricultural lands they have not otherwise protected through their planning processes.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 43.23 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The agricultural conservation easements program is created. The director shall manage the program and adopt rules as necessary to implement the legislature's intent.

(2) The director shall report to the legislature on an on-going basis regarding potential funding sources for the purchase of agricultural conservation easements under the program and recommend changes to existing funding authorized by the legislature. The director shall consider, at a minimum, the following potential funding sources:

(a) Federal funding;

(b) State general fund dollars;

(d) Taxes on increases in value in real property resulting from changes in zoning, especially rezoning of farmland for rural residential or urban development;

(e) Direct penalties for conversion of resource lands from current use assessment; and

(f) A very low statewide additional real estate excise tax.

(3) All funding for the program shall be deposited into the agricultural conservation easements account created in section 3 of this act. Expenditures from the account shall be made to local governments and private nonprofits on a match or no match required basis at the discretion of the director.

(4) Easements purchased with money from the agricultural conservation easements account run with the land.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 43.23 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The agricultural conservation easements account is created in the custody of the state treasurer. All receipts from legislative appropriations, other sources as directed by the legislature, and gifts, grants, or endowments from public or private sources must be deposited into the account. Expenditures from the account may be used only for the purchase of easements under the agricultural conservation easements program. Only the director of agriculture or the director's designee may authorize expenditures from the account. The account is subject to allotment procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW, but an appropriation is not required for expenditures.

(2) The director is authorized to receive and expend gifts, grants, or endowments from public or private sources that are made available, in trust or otherwise, for the use and benefit of the agricultural conservation easements program.