Passed by the House March 5, 2012 Yeas 90   ________________________________________ Speaker of the House of Representatives Passed by the Senate February 29, 2012 Yeas 45   ________________________________________ President of the Senate | I, Barbara Baker, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is ENGROSSED SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2567 as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the dates hereon set forth. ________________________________________ Chief Clerk | |
Approved ________________________________________ Governor of the State of Washington | Secretary of State State of Washington |
State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2012 Regular Session |
READ FIRST TIME 01/31/12.
AN ACT Relating to authorizing an optional system of rates and charges for conservation districts; adding a new section to chapter 89.08 RCW; and declaring an emergency.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 A new section is added to chapter 89.08 RCW
to read as follows:
(1) Any county legislative authority may approve by resolution
revenues to a conservation district by fixing rates and charges. The
county legislative authority may provide for this system of rates and
charges as an alternative to, but not in addition to, a special
assessment provided by RCW 89.08.400. In fixing rates and charges, the
county legislative authority may in its discretion consider the
information proposed to the county legislative authority by a
conservation district consistent with this section.
(2) A conservation district, in proposing a system of rates and
charges, may consider:
(a) Services furnished, to be furnished, or available to the
landowner;
(b) Benefits received, to be received, or available to the
property;
(c) The character and use of land;
(d) The nonprofit public benefit status, as defined in RCW
24.03.490, of the land user;
(e) The income level of persons served or provided benefits under
this chapter, including senior citizens and disabled persons; or
(f) Any other matters that present a reasonable difference as a
ground for distinction.
(3)(a) The system of rates and charges may include an annual per
acre amount, an annual per parcel amount, or an annual per parcel
amount plus an annual per acre amount. If included in the system of
rates and charges, the maximum annual per acre rate or charge shall not
exceed ten cents per acre. The maximum annual per parcel rate shall
not exceed five dollars, except that for counties with a population of
over one million five hundred thousand persons, the maximum annual per
parcel rate shall not exceed ten dollars.
(b) Public land, including lands owned or held by the state, shall
be subject to rates and charges to the same extent as privately owned
lands. The procedures provided in chapter 79.44 RCW shall be followed
if lands owned or held by the state are subject to the rates and
charges of a conservation district.
(c) Forest lands used solely for the planting, growing, or
harvesting of trees may be subject to rates and charges if such lands
are served by the activities of the conservation district. However, if
the system of rates and charges includes an annual per acre amount or
an annual per parcel amount plus an annual per acre amount, the per
acre rate or charge on such forest lands shall not exceed one-tenth of
the weighted average per acre rate or charge on all other lands within
the conservation district that are subject to rates and charges. The
calculation of the weighted average per acre shall be a ratio
calculated as follows: (i) The numerator shall be the total amount of
money estimated to be derived from the per acre special rates and
charges on the nonforest lands in the conservation district; and (ii)
the denominator shall be the total number of nonforest land acres in
the conservation district that are served by the activities of the
conservation district and that are subject to the rates or charges of
the conservation district. No more than ten thousand acres of such
forest lands that is both owned by the same person or entity and is
located in the same conservation district may be subject to the rates
and charges that are imposed for that conservation district in any
year. Per parcel charges shall not be imposed on forest land parcels.
However, in lieu of a per parcel charge, a charge of up to three
dollars per forest landowner may be imposed on each owner of forest
lands whose forest lands are subject to a per acre rate or charge.
(4) The consideration, development, adoption, and implementation of
a system of rates and charges shall follow the same public notice and
hearing process and be subject to the same procedure and authority of
RCW 89.08.400(2).
(5)(a) Following the adoption of a system of rates and charges, the
conservation district board of supervisors shall establish by
resolution a process providing for landowner appeals of the individual
rates and charges as applicable to a parcel or parcels.
(b) Any appeal must be filed by the landowner with the conservation
district no later than twenty-one days after the date property taxes
are due. The decision of the board of supervisors regarding any appeal
shall be final and conclusive.
(c) Any appeal of the decision of the board shall be to the
superior court of the county in which the district is located, and
served and filed within twenty-one days of the date of the board's
written decision.
(6) A conservation district shall prepare a roll that implements
the system of rates and charges approved by the county legislative
authority. The rates and charges from the roll shall be spread by the
county assessor as a separate item on the tax rolls and shall be
collected and accounted for with property taxes by the county
treasurer. The amount of the rates and charges shall constitute a lien
against the land that shall be subject to the same conditions as a tax
lien, and collected by the treasurer in the same manner as delinquent
real property taxes, and subject to the same interest and penalty as
for delinquent property taxes. The county treasurer shall deduct an
amount from the collected rates and charges, as established by the
county legislative authority, to cover the costs incurred by the county
assessor and county treasurer in spreading and collecting the rates and
charges, but not to exceed the actual costs of such work. All
remaining funds collected under this section shall be transferred to
the conservation district and used by the conservation district in
accordance with this section.
(7) The rates and charges for a conservation district shall not be
spread on the tax rolls and shall not be allocated with property tax
collections in the following year if, after the system of rates and
charges has been approved by the county legislative authority but
before the fifteenth day of December in that year, a petition has been
filed with the county legislative authority objecting to the imposition
of such rates and charges, which petition has been signed by at least
twenty percent of the owners of land that would be subject to the rate
or charge to be imposed for a conservation district.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2 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. 3 This act is necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the
state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect
immediately.