BILL REQ. #:  S-3728.1 

Read first time 01/22/2004.   Referred to Committee on Highways & Transportation.

     AN ACT Relating to state transportation bond payment revenue; and adding a new section to chapter 39.42 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 39.42 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) No bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness for borrowed money that is secured by transportation bond revenue shall be issued by the state which will cause the aggregate debt contracted by the state to exceed that amount for which payments of principal and interest in any fiscal year would require the state to expend more than seventeen percent of the arithmetic mean of state transportation bond revenue, for the three immediately preceding fiscal years as certified by the treasurer in accordance with RCW 39.42.070. It is the duty of the state finance committee to compute annually the amount required to pay principal of and interest on outstanding debt. In making this computation, the state finance committee shall include all borrowed money represented by bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness which are secured by the full faith and credit of the state or are required to be paid, directly or indirectly, from state transportation bond payment revenue and which are incurred by the state, any department, authority, public corporation or quasi public corporation of the state, any state university or college, or any other public agency created by the state but not by counties, cities, towns, school districts, or other municipal corporations, but shall exclude the following:
     (a) Debt incurred pursuant to section 3 of Article VIII of the Washington state Constitution; and
     (b) Indebtedness authorized and incurred after July 1, 2002, pursuant to statute that requires that the state treasury be reimbursed, in the amount of the principal of and the interest on the indebtedness, from tolls, fees, or other revenues derived from the operation of a state transportation facility.
     (2) For the purposes of this section, "state transportation bond payment revenue" means revenue from license fees for motor vehicles and excise taxes collected by the state on the sale, distribution, or use of motor vehicle fuel or special fuel that may be used for the payment of the principal and interest on general obligation bonds that are exempt from the state debt limit under RCW 39.42.060. State transportation bond payment revenue shall only include state motor vehicle fuel tax and special fuel tax as distributed under RCW 46.68.090(2) (c), (e), and (f) and motor vehicle license fees distributed under RCW 46.68.030 and 46.68.035. State transportation bond payment revenue does not include state motor vehicle license fees and fuel taxes that are distributed as tribal reservation refunds or other refunds, statutory distributions of revenue for the benefit of cities and counties, or distributions to state accounts whose primary purpose is the payment of bond debt. On or after the effective date of this act, the treasurer shall compute state transportation bond payment revenue for the three fiscal years immediately preceding this date, and determine the arithmetic mean. This computation shall be performed each year after the close of the fiscal year.