BILL REQ. #:  S-0361.1 

Read first time 01/21/09.   Referred to Committee on Government Operations & Elections.

     AN ACT Relating to establishing the emergency management, preparedness, and assistance account; amending RCW 48.18.170 and 48.18.180; adding new sections to chapter 38.52 RCW; creating new sections; and providing an effective date.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that recent events, including the 2007 floods closing Interstate 5, devastating our citizens in southwestern Washington and costing extreme economic loss due to the Interstate 5 closure, and the winter storms of early 2007, impacting nineteen of our thirty-nine counties, have demonstrated the need for a coordinated, comprehensive all-hazards disaster planning effort. Washington ranks fifteenth in the nation for federally declared disasters with fourteen disasters in the last ten years. Washington state's topography, geography, location, and disaster history place the state at particular risk from both natural disasters and human-caused disasters. The economic impact from just the 2007 disasters alone is estimated at over five hundred million dollars. In response, Washington state and its local governments have implemented all-hazards emergency management and disaster response plans. However, recent studies have revealed the lack of a secure funding source impedes our ability statewide from fully integrating and coordinating comprehensive disaster preparedness planning. Local programs suffer disparities in funding and expertise, leaving troublesome gaps in a well-coordinated statewide all-hazards emergency management system.
     Recognizing that all disasters are local disasters, the legislature therefore intends to strengthen state and local emergency response, mitigation, preparation, and coordination by establishing a stable source of funding. The funding will be dedicated to the development and coordination of state and local government emergency management programs to a recognized baseline standard. The baseline will be determined by a gap analysis of state and local emergency management programs.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   The emergency management, preparedness, and assistance account is created in the state treasury. All receipts from the surcharge authorized by section 3 of this act shall be deposited into the account. Moneys in the account may be spent only after appropriation. Expenditures from the account may be used only as provided in section 4 of this act.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   In order to provide funds for emergency management programs, an annual surcharge of one and one-third percent per policy is imposed on every homeowner's, mobile homeowner's, manufactured homeowner's, tenant homeowner's, and condominium unit owner's insurance policy, and commercial fire, commercial multiple peril, and business owner's property insurance policy, issued or renewed on or after the effective date of this section. The policyholder shall pay the surcharge to the insurer. The insurer shall collect the surcharge and remit it to the department of revenue, which will collect, administer, audit, and enforce the surcharge under chapter 82.32 RCW. The office of the insurance commissioner shall provide to the department of revenue the information needed by the department of revenue to collect the surcharge. The surcharge is not to be considered premiums of the insurer and is not subject to premium taxes, however, nonpayment of the surcharge by the insured may be a valid reason for cancellation of the policy. The surcharge imposed on policyholders under this section is not subject to retaliatory tax provisions. All proceeds of the surcharge shall be deposited in the emergency management, preparedness, and assistance account.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   (1) The Washington military department shall administer the emergency management, preparedness, and assistance account and shall establish rules for its administration in consultation with the emergency management council and the Washington state emergency management association. The department shall:
     (a) Use not more than twenty percent of the funds appropriated from the emergency management, preparedness, and assistance account for the department's administration of this section and to fund the assessment required by section 5 of this act, and to fund state agency programs and other activities established by the rules required by this section that will strengthen emergency response, mitigation, preparation, and coordination related to the baseline assessment in section 5 of this act;
     (b) Allocate at least sixty percent of the funds appropriated from the emergency management, preparedness, and assistance account for local and tribal governments' activities established by the rules required by this section that will strengthen emergency response, mitigation, preparation, and coordination;
     (i) Projects funded under this section shall include, but need not be limited to, projects that will promote neighborhood level public education on disaster preparedness.
     (ii) Grant funding may also be used as seed money to establish a dedicated, full-time emergency management director in every county that does not have such a director as of the effective date of this section. Grant funding may not be used to hire uniformed personnel to perform routine law enforcement patrol or fire service duties.
     (iii) The department shall establish criteria, procedures, and a distribution strategy for allocation of funds by rule in consultation with the emergency management council and the Washington state emergency management association;
     (c) Allocate at least ten percent of the funds appropriated from the emergency management, preparedness, and assistance account for a competitive grant program to improve local and regional programs and coordination. The department shall establish criteria and procedures for competitive allocation of these funds by rule in consultation with the emergency management council and the Washington state emergency management association. At a minimum, the rules shall:
     (i) Establish preferential funding for projects and exercises addressing needs and recommendations identified by the department in the assessment conducted under section 5 of this act;
     (ii) Specify match requirements; and
     (iii) Include requirements that, at a minimum, a local emergency management agency have: A comprehensive emergency management plan or be a member of a joint local organization for emergency management;
     (d) Allocate at least ten percent of the funds appropriated from the emergency management, preparedness, and assistance account for a response and recovery contingency fund. Moneys from the contingency fund may be released by the Washington state military department to support:
     (i) State or local matching requirements imposed as a condition of receiving federal disaster relief assistance;
     (ii) Extraordinary state or local response and recovery costs when no federal disaster declaration has been made.
     (2) Any funds appropriated under this section but not expended during the designated performance period revert to the response and recovery contingency fund described in subsection (1)(d) of this section.
     (3) No more than three percent of any award granted under subsection (1)(b) of this section may be used for administrative purposes.
     (4) Distribution of funds will begin January 1, 2011.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   The emergency management council shall accomplish a baseline assessment of all emergency management programs that receive federal emergency management performance grant funds within six months after the effective date of this section. Beginning biennially thereafter, the emergency management council shall conduct in conjunction with the department, a strategic assessment of the baseline required standards as defined by rules adopted by the department in consultation with the emergency management council and the Washington state emergency management association, and issue a report on, the ability of state, local, and tribal emergency management organizations to effectively provide for all phases of comprehensive emergency management. The assessment shall:
     (1) Evaluate state, local, and tribal emergency management capabilities and needs;
     (2) Evaluate the ability of state, local, and tribal emergency management organizations to provide emergency management mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery;
     (3) Evaluate the effectiveness of the emergency management structure at the state, local, and tribal levels;
     (4) Evaluate the coordination between state, local, and tribal governments and private industries or organizations that provide basic human safety and health needs including water, food, shelter, and medical care;
     (5) Provide findings and make recommendations that increase the ability of state, local, and tribal emergency management organizations to meet current and future risks; and
     (6) Detail where and for what purpose funds under section 4(1)(b) of this act have been distributed.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   The joint legislative audit and review committee shall study and review the performance of programs implemented under this act. The committee shall examine at least the following factors: The number and type of joint exercises conducted under section 4 of this act; the number of programs receiving grant money and the status of those programs; the coordination of comprehensive emergency management plans between state and local jurisdictions; the number of training programs administered; the number of comprehensive emergency management or safety plans created using funds distributed under section 4 of this act; and the number of emergency preparedness officials created and trained with funds distributed under this act. The committee shall provide a final report on this review by December 2012. Funds from the emergency management, preparedness, and assistance account may be provided to the committee for the purposes of conducting the study.

Sec. 7   RCW 48.18.170 and 2007 c 153 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     "Premium" as used in this code means all sums charged, received, or deposited as consideration for an insurance contract or the continuance thereof. "Premium" does not include ((a regulatory)) the annual surcharge imposed ((by RCW 48.02.190, except as otherwise provided in this)) under section 3 of this act. Any assessment, or any "membership," "policy," "survey," "inspection," "service" or similar fee or charge made by the insurer in consideration for an insurance contract is deemed part of the premium.

Sec. 8   RCW 48.18.180 and 2008 c 217 s 13 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The premium stated in the policy shall be inclusive of all fees, charges, premiums, or other consideration charged for the insurance or for the procurement thereof.
     (2) No insurer or its officer, employee, appointed insurance producer, or other representative shall charge or receive any fee, compensation, or consideration for insurance which is not included in the premium specified in the policy.
     (3) Each violation of this section is a gross misdemeanor.
     (4) This section does not apply to:
     (a) A fee paid to an insurance producer by an insured as provided in RCW 48.17.270; or
     (b) ((A regulatory)) The annual surcharge imposed ((by RCW 48.02.190)) under section 3 of this act.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 9   Sections 2 through 5 of this act are each added to chapter 38.52 RCW.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 10   Sections 4 through 6 and 8 of this act take effect January 1, 2010.