BILL REQ. #: H-2276.2
| State of Washington | 59th Legislature | 2005 Regular Session |
READ FIRST TIME 03/03/05.
AN ACT Relating to providing a source of funding for customized work force training; amending RCW 43.163.020 and 43.163.210; adding a new section to chapter 82.04 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 82.16 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 82.32 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 43.163 RCW; and adding a new chapter to Title 28C RCW.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 The legislature finds that the availability
of a trained work force is critical to attracting and retaining
businesses. The legislature also finds that the growth of many
businesses is limited by an unmet need for training. Furthermore,
training not only helps business, it also improves the quality of life
for workers and communities. Because of the statewide public benefit
to be gained from instituting a customized training program, the
legislature intends to create a new program to fund work force training
in a manner that reduces the up-front costs of training to expanding
firms.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2
(1) "Authority" means the Washington economic development finance
authority created under RCW 43.163.020, or any board, body, commission,
department, or officer succeeding to the principal functions of the
authority or to whom the powers conferred upon the authority shall be
given by law.
(2) "Board" means the state board for community and technical
colleges.
(3) "Bond resolution" means any resolution of the authority,
adopted under this chapter, authorizing the issuance and sale of bonds.
(4) "Bonds" means bonds, notes, commercial paper, certificates of
indebtedness, or other evidences of indebtedness of the authority
issued under this chapter.
(5) "Costs of training" means the direct payments made under a
contract with a qualified training institution for formal technical or
skill training, including basic skills. "Costs of training" includes
amounts in the contract for costs of instruction, materials, equipment,
rental of class space, marketing, and overhead. "Costs of training"
does not include employee tuition reimbursements unless the tuition
reimbursement is specifically included in a contract.
(6) "Participant" means a private employer that, under this
chapter, undertakes a training program with a qualified training
institution.
(7) "Qualified training institution" means a public community or
technical college or a private vocational school licensed by either the
work force training and education coordinating board or the higher
education coordinating board.
(8) "Training program" means a program funded under this chapter at
a qualified training institution.
(9) "Trust indenture" means any agreement, trust indenture, or
other similar instrument by and between the authority and one or more
corporate trustees.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3 (1) The Washington customized employment
training program is hereby created to allow employers locating or
expanding in the state to receive training assistance to provide
training for employees.
(2)(a) Application to receive funding under this program shall be
made to the board in a form and manner as specified by the board.
Successful applicants shall be provided with a training grant to be
used to pay for the costs of training. Employers may not receive funds
for training costs which exceed the maximum annual training cost per
employee, as established by the state board for community and technical
colleges, and are not eligible to receive total grants over five
hundred thousand dollars per calendar year.
(b) Approval shall be granted for applicants who meet the following
criteria:
(i) The employer must have entered into an agreement with a
qualified training institution to engage in customized training and the
employer must agree to: (A) Reimburse the institution in an amount
equal to one-half of the amount of the training grant; (B) make a
deposit into the account specified in section 14 of this act in an
amount equal to the amount that would be due under chapter 82.04 or
82.16 RCW if not for the provisions of section 11 or 12 of this act;
and (C) make such other payments as the institution specifies to ensure
payments into the account specified in section 14 of this act
sufficient to cover the costs associated with the bonds issued under
section 4 of this act. The deposits in the account specified in
section 14 of this act do not constitute payment to the institution.
(ii) The employer must either: (A) Be engaged in activities that
will generate sufficient revenue over a ten-year period to make annual
deposits of at least one-tenth of the amount of the grant, or, if more
than one grant is received, at least one-tenth the total of all grants
received for which payments are being deposited into the account
specified in section 14 of this act; or (B) document the availability
of a job skills grant under RCW 28C.04.420 or other funds sufficient to
pay the costs associated with any bond issued under section 4 of this
act within ten years of the issuance of the bond.
(iii) The employer must ensure that the number of employees an
employer has in the state during the calendar year following the
completion of the training program will equal the number of employees
the employer had in the state in the calendar year preceding the start
of the training program plus seventy-five percent of the number of
trainees. The agreement with the qualified training institution
provided for in (b)(i) of this subsection shall specify terms for
additional reimbursement or payment to the account specified in section
14 of this act by the employer if the criterion of this subsection is
not met.
(iv) The training grant may not be used to train workers who have
been hired as a result of a strike or lockout.
(c) Training grants are available on a first-come first-served
basis, with priority based on the date and time the application is
received by the board.
(3) Qualified training institutions may enter into agreements with
four-year institutions of higher education as defined in RCW 28B.10.016
in accordance with the interlocal cooperation act, chapter 39.34 RCW.
(4) The board may adopt rules to implement this section.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4
(2) The authority may, from time to time, issue its special
obligation bonds in order to carry out the purposes of this chapter and
to enable the authority to exercise any of the powers granted to it in
this chapter. The bonds may be issued on either a taxable or federally
tax-exempt basis. The bonds shall be issued pursuant to a bond
resolution or trust indenture and shall be payable solely out of the
account specified in section 14 of this act. The account specified in
section 14 of this act shall be funded in whole or in part from moneys
paid by one or more participants for whose benefit such bonds were
issued and from any other sources authorized by law, including from the
proceeds of bonds issued by the authority for the purpose of refunding
any outstanding bonds of the authority.
(3) The bonds may be secured by:
(a) A first lien against any unexpended proceeds of the bonds;
(b) A first lien against moneys in the account specified in section
14 of this act;
(c) A first or subordinate lien against the revenue and receipts of
the participant or participants;
(d) A first or subordinate security interest against any real or
personal property, tangible or intangible, of the participant or
participants, including, but not limited to, the training program
financed by the authority;
(e) Any other real or personal property of the participant or
participants, tangible or intangible;
(f) Any combination of (a) through (e) of this subsection; or
(g) Any other security the authority may deem appropriate or
necessary.
Any security interest created against the unexpended bond proceeds
and against the account specified in section 14 of this act shall be
immediately valid and binding against the moneys and any securities in
which the moneys may be invested without authority or trustee
possession, and the security interest shall be prior to any party
having any competing claim against the moneys or securities, without
filing or recording under Article 9A of the Uniform Commercial Code,
Title 62A RCW, and regardless of whether the party has notice of the
security interest.
(4) The bonds may be issued as serial bonds or as term bonds or any
such combination. The bonds shall bear such date or dates; mature at
such time or times; bear interest at such rate or rates, either fixed
or variable; be payable at such time or times; be in such
denominations; carry such registration privileges; be made
transferable, exchangeable, and interchangeable; be payable in lawful
money of the United States of America at such place or places; be
subject to such terms of redemption; and be sold at public or private
sale, in such manner, at such time, and at such price as the authority
shall determine. The bonds shall be executed by the manual or
facsimile signatures of the chairperson and the authority's duly
elected secretary or its executive director, and by the trustee if the
authority determines to use a trustee. At least one signature shall be
manually subscribed.
(5) Any bond resolution, trust indenture, or agreement with a
participant relating to bonds issued by the authority or the financing
or refinancing made available by this act may contain provisions, which
may be made a part of the contract with the holders or owners of the
bonds to be issued, pertaining to the following, among other matters:
(a) The security interests granted by the participant to secure
repayment of any amounts financed and the performance by the
participant of its other obligations in the financing;
(b) The security interests granted to the holders or owners of the
bonds to secure repayment of the bonds;
(c) Rentals, fees, and other amounts to be charged, and the sums to
be raised in each year through such charges, and the use, investment,
and disposition of the sums;
(d) The segregation of reserves or sinking funds, and the
regulation, investment, and disposition thereof;
(e) Limitations on the uses of the project;
(f) Limitations on the purposes to which, or the investments in
which, the proceeds of the sale of any issue of bonds may be applied;
(g) Terms pertaining to the issuance of additional parity bonds;
(h) Terms pertaining to the incurrence of parity debt;
(i) The refunding of outstanding bonds;
(j) Procedures, if any, by which the terms of any contract with
bondholders may be amended or abrogated;
(k) Acts or failures to act that constitute a default by the
participant or the authority in their respective obligations and the
rights and remedies in the event of a default;
(l) Terms governing performance by the trustee of its obligation;
or
(m) Such other additional covenants, agreements, and provisions as
are deemed necessary, useful, or convenient by the authority for the
security of the holders of the bonds.
(6) Bonds may be issued by the authority to refund other
outstanding authority bonds, at or before the maturity thereof, and to
pay any redemption premium with respect thereto. Bonds issued for such
refunding purposes may be combined with bonds issued for the financing
or refinancing of new training programs. Pending the application of
the proceeds of the refunding bonds to the redemption of the bonds to
be redeemed, the authority may enter into an agreement or agreements
with a corporate trustee under section 7 of this act with respect to
the interim investment of the proceeds and the application of the
proceeds and the earnings on the proceeds to the payment of the
principal of and interest on, and the redemption of the bonds to be
redeemed.
(7) All bonds and any interest coupons appertaining to the bonds
are negotiable instruments under Title 62A RCW.
(8) Neither the members of the authority, nor its employees or
agents, nor any person executing the bonds is liable personally on the
bonds or subject to any personal liability or accountability by reason
of the issuance of the bonds.
(9) The authority may purchase its bonds with any of its funds
available for the purchase. The authority may hold, pledge, cancel, or
resell the bonds subject to and in accordance with agreements with
bondholders.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 5
Neither the proceeds of bonds issued under this chapter, any moneys
used or to be used to pay the principal of or interest on the bonds,
nor any moneys received by the authority to defray its administrative
costs shall constitute public money or property. All of such moneys
shall be kept segregated and set apart from funds of the state and any
political subdivision of the state and shall not be subject to
appropriation or allotment by the state or subject to the provisions of
chapter 43.88 RCW.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6
NEW SECTION. Sec. 7
(1) Perform all of any part of the obligations of the authority
with respect to: (a) Bonds issued by it; (b) the receipt, investment,
and application of the proceeds of the bonds and moneys paid by a
participant or available from other sources for the payment of the
bonds; (c) the enforcement of the obligations of a participant in
connection with the financing or refinancing of any project; and (d)
other matters relating to the exercise of the authority's powers under
this chapter;
(2) Receive, hold, preserve, and enforce any security interest or
evidence of security interest granted by a participant for purposes of
securing the payment of the bonds; and
(3) Act on behalf of the authority or the holders or owners of
bonds of the authority for purposes of assuring or enforcing the
payment of the bonds, when due.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 8
NEW SECTION. Sec. 9
NEW SECTION. Sec. 10
NEW SECTION. Sec. 11 A new section is added to chapter 82.04 RCW
to read as follows:
(1) This chapter does not apply to any person that is a participant
in the Washington customized employment training program in chapter
28C.-- RCW (sections 1 through 10 and 14 of this act).
(2) "Participant" has the same meaning as provided in section 2 of
this act.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 12 A new section is added to chapter 82.16 RCW
to read as follows:
(1) This chapter does not apply to any person that is a participant
in the Washington customized employment training program in chapter
28C.-- RCW (sections 1 through 10 and 14 of this act).
(2) "Participant" has the same meaning as provided in section 2 of
this act.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 13 A new section is added to chapter 82.32 RCW
to read as follows:
The department shall deposit in the public works assistance account
an amount equal to the amount that would have otherwise been deposited
in the account pursuant to RCW 82.16.020(3) if the exemption in section
12 of this act was not operative.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 14 The payments received from a person who is
an employer participating under section 3 of this act shall be
deposited by the authority into a separate and identifiable account
opened and maintained at a qualified public depositary. Only the
authority may authorize expenditures from the account. The money in
the account must be used for the purposes of bond resolution or trust
indenture under which the bonds are issued under this chapter. The
deposit of revenue under this section from a participant shall cease
when the authority specifies that the participant has met the monetary
obligations of the program.
Sec. 15 RCW 43.163.020 and 1995 c 399 s 89 are each amended to
read as follows:
The Washington economic development finance authority is
established as a public body corporate and politic, with perpetual
corporate succession, constituting an instrumentality of the state of
Washington exercising essential governmental functions. The authority
is a public body within the meaning of RCW 39.53.010.
The authority shall consist of ((eighteen [seventeen])) seventeen
members as follows: The director of the department of community,
trade, and economic development, the director of the ((department of
agriculture)) state board for community and technical colleges, the
state treasurer, one member from each caucus in the house of
representatives appointed by the speaker of the house, one member from
each caucus in the senate appointed by the president of the senate, and
ten public members with one representative of women-owned businesses
and one representative of minority-owned businesses and with at least
three of the members residing east of the Cascades. The public members
shall be residents of the state appointed by the governor on the basis
of their interest or expertise in trade, agriculture or business
finance or jobs creation and development. One of the public members
shall be appointed by the governor as chair of the authority and shall
serve as chair of the authority at the pleasure of the governor. The
authority may select from its membership such other officers as it
deems appropriate.
The term of the persons appointed by the governor as public members
of the authority, including the public member appointed as chair, shall
be four years from the date of appointment, except that the term of
three of the initial appointees shall be for two years from the date of
appointment and the term of four of the initial appointees shall be for
three years from the date of appointment. The governor shall designate
the appointees who will serve the two-year and three-year terms.
In the event of a vacancy on the authority due to death,
resignation or removal of one of the public members, or upon the
expiration of the term of one of the public members, the governor shall
appoint a successor for the remainder of the unexpired term. If either
of the state offices is abolished, the resulting vacancy on the
authority shall be filled by the state officer who shall succeed
substantially to the power and duties of the abolished office.
Any public member of the authority may be removed by the governor
for misfeasance, malfeasance or willful neglect of duty after notice
and a public hearing, unless such notice and hearing shall be expressly
waived in writing by the affected public member.
The state officials serving in ex officio capacity may each
designate an employee of their respective departments to act on their
behalf in all respects with regard to any matter to come before the
authority. Such designations shall be made in writing in such manner
as is specified by the rules of the authority.
The members of the authority shall serve without compensation but
shall be entitled to reimbursement, solely from the funds of the
authority, for expenses incurred in the discharge of their duties under
this chapter. The authority may borrow funds from the department for
the purpose of reimbursing members for expenses; however, the authority
shall repay the department as soon as practicable.
A majority of the authority shall constitute a quorum.
Sec. 16 RCW 43.163.210 and 2001 c 304 s 3 are each amended to
read as follows:
For the purpose of facilitating economic development in the state
of Washington and encouraging the employment of Washington workers at
meaningful wages:
(1) The authority may develop and conduct a program or programs to
provide nonrecourse revenue bond financing for the project costs for
economic development activities.
(2) The authority may develop and conduct a program that will
stimulate and encourage the development of new products within
Washington state by the infusion of financial aid for invention and
innovation in situations in which the financial aid would not otherwise
be reasonably available from commercial sources. The authority is
authorized to provide nonrecourse revenue bond financing for this
program.
(a) For the purposes of this program, the authority shall have the
following powers and duties:
(i) To enter into financing agreements with eligible persons doing
business in Washington state, upon terms and on conditions consistent
with the purposes of this chapter, for the advancement of financial and
other assistance to the persons for the development of specific
products, procedures, and techniques, to be developed and produced in
this state, and to condition the agreements upon contractual assurances
that the benefits of increasing or maintaining employment and tax
revenues shall remain in this state and accrue to it;
(ii) Own, possess, and take license in patents, copyrights, and
proprietary processes and negotiate and enter into contracts and
establish charges for the use of the patents, copyrights, and
proprietary processes when the patents and licenses for products result
from assistance provided by the authority;
(iii) Negotiate royalty payments to the authority on patents and
licenses for products arising as a result of assistance provided by the
authority;
(iv) Negotiate and enter into other types of contracts with
eligible persons that assure that public benefits will result from the
provision of services by the authority; provided that the contracts are
consistent with the state Constitution;
(v) Encourage and provide technical assistance to eligible persons
in the process of developing new products;
(vi) Refer eligible persons to researchers or laboratories for the
purpose of testing and evaluating new products, processes, or
innovations; and
(vii) To the extent permitted under its contract with eligible
persons, to consent to a termination, modification, forgiveness, or
other change of a term of a contractual right, payment, royalty,
contract, or agreement of any kind to which the authority is a party.
(b) Eligible persons seeking financial and other assistance under
this program shall forward an application, together with an application
fee prescribed by rule, to the authority. An investigation and report
concerning the advisability of approving an application for assistance
shall be completed by the staff of the authority. The investigation
and report may include, but is not limited to, facts about the company
under consideration as its history, wage standards, job opportunities,
stability of employment, past and present financial condition and
structure, pro forma income statements, present and future markets and
prospects, integrity of management as well as the feasibility of the
proposed product and invention to be granted financial aid, including
the state of development of the product as well as the likelihood of
its commercial feasibility. After receipt and consideration of the
report set out in this subsection and after other action as is deemed
appropriate, the application shall be approved or denied by the
authority. The applicant shall be promptly notified of action by the
authority. In making the decision as to approval or denial of an
application, priority shall be given to those persons operating or
planning to operate businesses of special importance to Washington's
economy, including, but not limited to: (i) Existing resource-based
industries of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; (ii) existing
advanced technology industries of electronics, computer and instrument
manufacturing, computer software, and information and design; and (iii)
emerging industries such as environmental technology, biotechnology,
biomedical sciences, materials sciences, and optics.
(3) The authority may also develop and implement, if authorized by
the legislature, such other economic development financing programs
adopted in future general plans of economic development finance
objectives developed under RCW 43.163.090.
(((4) The authority may not issue any bonds for the programs
authorized under this section after June 30, 2006.))
NEW SECTION. Sec. 17 A new section is added to chapter 43.163
RCW to read as follows:
The authority is authorized to conduct the Washington customized
employment training program created in chapter 28C.-- RCW (sections 1
through 10 and 14 of this act).
NEW SECTION. Sec. 18 If any provision of this act or its
application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the
remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other
persons or circumstances is not affected.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 19 Sections 1 through 10 and 14 of this act
constitute a new chapter in Title 28C RCW.