SENATE BILL REPORT

HB 1569

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Background: The Growth Management Act (GMA) is the comprehensive land use planning framework for county and city governments in Washington. The GMA directs planning jurisdictions to adopt internally consistent comprehensive land use plans, which are generalized, coordinated land use policy statements of the governing body. Comprehensive plans must satisfy requirements for specified planning elements, including a land use element and a capital facilities plan element, each of which is a subset of a comprehensive plan.

A capital facilities plan element must consist of the following five components: (1) an inventory of existing capital facilities owned by public entities, showing the locations and capacities of the capital facilities; (2) a forecast of the future needs for capital facilities; (3) the proposed locations and capacities of expanded or new capital facilities; (4) at least a six-year plan that will finance such capital facilities within projected funding capacities and clearly identify sources of public money for such purposes; and (5) a requirement to reassess the land use element if probable funding falls short of meeting existing needs.

Summary of Bill: Public works assistance funds (PWAF) may be established by a county legislative authority to fund public works projects located wholly or partially within the county. Money may be deposited in PWAFs from existing revenue sources of the county. Monies deposited in PWAFs may only be used to make loans to the county and to other local government for funding qualified public works projects and for costs incurred in the administration of funds. A county, in consultation with cities and towns within the county, may loan money from PWAFs to local governments to assist in funding public works projects. A county may not pledge any amount greater than the sum of the money in its PWAF plus money to be received from the payment of the debt service on loans made from that PWAF.

County legislative authorities utilizing or providing money from a PWAF must develop a prioritization process for funding public works projects that gives priority to projects necessary to address public health needs, substantial environmental degradation, or to increase existing capacity necessary to accommodate projected population and employment growth. Additionally, legislative authorities providing funding to other local governments must consider, through a competitive bidding process, specified factors in assigning a priority to and funding a project.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony: PRO: For growth management to work, there truly needs to be good coordination between the states, counties, and cities. Currently, there are no state or local laws that dedicate funds to accommodate anticipated growth. This bill sets up that type of system. The Senate's Economic Development Committee heard a similar bill this session, Senate Bill 5448, sponsored by Senator Shin. That bill passed to rules but did not make it out in time. This bill establishes a local public works trust fund. It does not require, but gives counties the option to establish this fund. A lot of small cities and counties have public works projects that would benefit from this type of fund. The Washington State Public Works Trust Fund may not show an interest to some of these small cities due to the small scale of their projects. This is where the local county trust fund would be beneficial. Counties would like to provide loans that would make a big difference to these small cities.