Washington State

House of Representatives

Office of Program Research

BILL

ANALYSIS

Local Government Committee

HB 1336

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.

Brief Summary of Bill

Authorizes cities to use federal decennial census data, as updated by the Office of Financial Management pursuant to RCW 43.62.030, to account for the resident population of complete federal census blocks located in annexed territory, if the date of annexation occurs within 18 months of the release of the census data.
Requires cities to use actual enumeration to account for the resident population of any partial census block located within the annexed territory, and for the entire resident population of the annexed territory if the date of annexation occurs more than 18 months from the date of release of federal decennial census data.

Background:

Annexations and Population Determinations.

Annexations by cities and towns and annexations by code cities, while governed by separate statutes, share a common requirement for the annexing jurisdiction to determine the resident population of the territory to be annexed. Such population determinations must be accomplished using the practice of actual enumeration, conducted in accordance with the practices and policies, and subject to the approval of, the Office of Financial Management (OFM), which uses the information supplied through the annexation process in annually calculating the population of all cities and towns in the state.

State-shared revenues from the gasoline tax, liquor board profits, and the liquor excise tax are distributed to cities on the basis of population as determined by the OFM. For a city to have its population adjusted for an annexation for purposes of state-shared revenue distributions, the OFM must certify the annexation, after which it notifies the appropriate state agencies of the population change.

For purposes of state-shared revenues, the revised city boundaries and the new population are not recognized until the date that the OFM approves the annexation certificate submitted to it by the city.

Federal Census Blocks.

The United States Census counts every resident in the United States. It is mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, takes place every 10 years, and must be accomplished using actual enumeration. Among other purposes, decennial census data is used to determine the distribution of Congressional seats to states, to make decisions about what community services to provide, and to distribute federal funds to local, state, and tribal governments.

Census blocks are the smallest geographic area for which the U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau) collects and tabulates decennial census data. Generally, they are formed by streets, roads, railroads, streams and other bodies of water, other visible physical and cultural features, and the legal boundaries shown on Bureau maps.

Summary of Bill:

The requirement for an annexing city, town or code city to use actual enumeration to account for the population of territory to be annexed is modified to allow the annexing city to use federal decennial census data to account for the population of complete census blocks located within the territory to be annexed, as long as the date of annexation occurs within 18 months of the release of such data.

Annexing cities are still required to employ actual enumeration to account for the population of all partial census blocks located within the territory to be annexed, and to account for the entire population of the territory to be annexed if the date of annexation occurs more than 18 months after the release of such data.