S-4108

AN ACT Relating to the fruit and vegetable inspection account; amending RCW 15.17.230, 15.17.240, and 15.17.243; reenacting and amending RCW 43.79A.040; creating new sections; repealing RCW 15.17.245; and providing an effective date.

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

Sec. 1. RCW 15.17.230 and 1998 c 154 s 15 are each amended to read as follows:

For the purpose of this chapter the state shall be divided into not less than ((~~three~~)) two fruit and vegetable inspection districts ((~~to which the director may assign a district manager who shall supervise and administer regulatory and inspection affairs of the districts~~)). The director, by rule, shall establish the boundaries of the districts and may adjust the boundaries for purposes of efficiency and economy.

Sec. 2. RCW 15.17.240 and 1998 c 154 s 16 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) ((The district managers shall collect the fees provided for under this chapter and deposit them in the fruit and vegetable district fund in any bank in the district approved for the deposit of state funds. The fees shall be used to carry out the provisions of this chapter and no appropriation is required for disbursement from the fund. District managers shall approve payments from the fruit and vegetable inspection district funds to the fruit and vegetable inspection trust account in accordance with RCW 15.17.245. On a monthly basis, each district manager shall provide to the director a detailed account of the receipts and disbursements for the preceding month.

(2) Assessments and other fees approved by the director or authorized by law and collected by the district managers shall be deposited in the fruit and vegetable inspection district funds and distributed to the appropriate fund or agency.)) The fruit and vegetable inspection account is created in the custody of the state treasurer. All fees collected under this chapter must be deposited into the account. The director may authorize expenditures from the account solely for the implementation and enforcement of this chapter and any other expenditures authorized by statute or session law and applying specifically to the account. The account is subject to allotment procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW, but an appropriation is not required for expenditures.

The director shall establish and maintain an account within the fruit and vegetable inspection account for each district established under RCW 15.17.230.

(2) By August 1, 2004, and by August 1st of each even-numbered year thereafter, the director shall review the balance of each of the district accounts in the fruit and vegetable inspection account at the end of the previous fiscal year. If the balance in the district account exceeds the sum of the following: An amount equal to the total expenditures of the district served by that account for the last six months of that previous fiscal year; any budgeted capital expenditures from the account for the current fiscal year; and six hundred thousand dollars, the director shall temporarily and equally, on a percentage basis, reduce each of the fees accruing to the district account until such time that the district account has a balance equal to the amount of the total expenditures from the account for the last seven months of the previous fiscal year, at which time the fees shall be returned to the amounts before the temporary reduction. In making the reductions, the director shall attempt to reduce fees for a twelve‑month period so as to apply the reductions to as many of the persons who annually pay fees for services provided by the district. The temporary fee reductions shall be initially provided through the adoption of emergency rules. The emergency and subsequent rules temporarily reducing the fees are exempt from the requirements of RCW 34.05.310 and chapter 19.85 RCW. These fees shall be reinstated through the expiration of the rules temporarily reducing them and the authority to reinstate them is hereby granted.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. (1) Any residual balance in any fruit and vegetable district fund on the effective date of this act shall be transferred to the fruit and vegetable inspection account established in RCW 15.17.240. Any such residual balance in the district fund for district number 2, as the district is constituted by rule on January 1, 2002, shall be transferred to the district account for the district containing Yakima county. Any such residual balance in the district fund for any other district shall be transferred to the district account for the district not containing Yakima county. Any residual balance in the fruit and vegetable inspection trust account on the effective date of this act shall be transferred to the fruit and vegetable inspection account established in RCW 15.17.240 and shall be equally distributed among the district accounts.

(2) The director shall review the residual balance of each of the district funds transferred to the fruit and vegetable inspection account under subsection (1) of this section. If such a residual balance in the district fund exceeds an amount equal to the total of the expenditures of the district served by that fund for the last six months of fiscal year 2002, the director of agriculture shall temporarily reduce each of the inspection fees adopted by rule which accrue to the district account into which the residual balance from that fund was transferred under this section. The fees shall be temporarily reduced by twelve and one-half percent for the district served by the district account and shall remain temporarily reduced until such time as the district account has a balance equal to the amount of the total expenditures from the district fund, from which the district account received such a residual balance exceeding the six-month expenditures, for the seven months ending June 30, 2002. At such time, the fees charged shall return to the level of the fees adopted by rule.

Sec. 4. RCW 15.17.243 and 2001 c 92 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

The district manager for district two as defined in WAC 16‑458‑075 is authorized to transfer two hundred thousand dollars from the fruit and vegetable district fund to the plant pest account within the agricultural local fund. The amount transferred is to be derived from fees collected for state inspections of tree fruits and is to be used solely for activities related to the control of Rhagoletis pomonella in district two. The transfer of funds shall occur by June 1, 1997. On June 30, 2003, any unexpended portion of the two hundred thousand dollars shall be ((~~returned~~)) transferred to the fruit and vegetable ((~~district fund~~)) inspection account and deposited in the district account for the district that includes Yakima county.

Sec. 5. RCW 43.79A.040 and 2001 c 201 s 4 and 2001 c 184 s 4 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

(1) Money in the treasurer's trust fund may be deposited, invested, and reinvested by the state treasurer in accordance with RCW 43.84.080 in the same manner and to the same extent as if the money were in the state treasury.

(2) All income received from investment of the treasurer's trust fund shall be set aside in an account in the treasury trust fund to be known as the investment income account.

(3) The investment income account may be utilized for the payment of purchased banking services on behalf of treasurer's trust funds including, but not limited to, depository, safekeeping, and disbursement functions for the state treasurer or affected state agencies. The investment income account is subject in all respects to chapter 43.88 RCW, but no appropriation is required for payments to financial institutions. Payments shall occur prior to distribution of earnings set forth in subsection (4) of this section.

(4)(a) Monthly, the state treasurer shall distribute the earnings credited to the investment income account to the state general fund except under (b) and (c) of this subsection.

(b) The following accounts and funds shall receive their proportionate share of earnings based upon each account's or fund's average daily balance for the period: The college savings program account, the Washington advanced college tuition payment program account, the agricultural local fund, the American Indian scholarship endowment fund, the basic health plan self-insurance reserve account, the Washington international exchange scholarship endowment fund, the developmental disabilities endowment trust fund, the energy account, the fair fund, the fruit and vegetable inspection account, the game farm alternative account, the grain inspection revolving fund, the juvenile accountability incentive account, the rural rehabilitation account, the stadium and exhibition center account, the youth athletic facility account, the self-insurance revolving fund, the sulfur dioxide abatement account, and the children's trust fund. However, the earnings to be distributed shall first be reduced by the allocation to the state treasurer's service fund pursuant to RCW 43.08.190.

(c) The following accounts and funds shall receive eighty percent of their proportionate share of earnings based upon each account's or fund's average daily balance for the period: The advanced right of way revolving fund, the advanced environmental mitigation revolving account, the city and county advance right-of-way revolving fund, the federal narcotics asset forfeitures account, the high occupancy vehicle account, the local rail service assistance account, and the miscellaneous transportation programs account.

(5) In conformance with Article II, section 37 of the state Constitution, no trust accounts or funds shall be allocated earnings without the specific affirmative directive of this section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. If fruit and vegetable inspection districts that existed on January 1, 2002, under RCW 15.17.230 are consolidated or otherwise altered during 2002, the consolidation or alternation must not result in a reduction of inspection services or the availability or quality of those services in any of the districts, but may result in a consolidation of administrative support for those services.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. RCW 15.17.245 (Fruit and vegetable inspection trust account) and 1998 c 154 s 19, 1987 c 393 s 2, 1986 c 203 s 1, 1969 ex.s. c 76 s 1, & 1961 c 11 s 15.04.100 are each repealed.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. This act takes effect July 1, 2002. However, the director of the department of agriculture and the state treasurer may take actions before July 1, 2002, to permit the creation of the fruit and vegetable inspection account and the district accounts described in RCW 15.17.240 by July 1, 2002.