BILL REQ. #: S-0230.1
State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2011 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/14/11. Referred to Committee on Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections.
AN ACT Relating to public health district authority as it relates to gifts, grants, conveyances, bequests, and devises of real or personal property; and amending RCW 70.44.060.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1 RCW 70.44.060 and 2010 c 95 s 1 are each amended to read
as follows:
All public hospital districts organized under the provisions of
this chapter shall have power:
(1) To make a survey of existing hospital and other health care
facilities within and without such district.
(2) To construct, condemn and purchase, purchase, acquire, lease,
add to, maintain, operate, develop and regulate, sell and convey all
lands, property, property rights, equipment, hospital and other health
care facilities and systems for the maintenance of hospitals,
buildings, structures, and any and all other facilities, and to
exercise the right of eminent domain to effectuate the foregoing
purposes or for the acquisition and damaging of the same or property of
any kind appurtenant thereto, and such right of eminent domain shall be
exercised and instituted pursuant to a resolution of the commission and
conducted in the same manner and by the same procedure as in or may be
provided by law for the exercise of the power of eminent domain by
incorporated cities and towns of the state of Washington in the
acquisition of property rights: PROVIDED, That no public hospital
district shall have the right of eminent domain and the power of
condemnation against any health care facility.
(3) To lease existing hospital and other health care facilities and
equipment and/or other property used in connection therewith, including
ambulances, and to pay such rental therefor as the commissioners shall
deem proper; to provide hospital and other health care services for
residents of said district by facilities located outside the boundaries
of said district, by contract or in any other manner said commissioners
may deem expedient or necessary under the existing conditions; and said
hospital district shall have the power to contract with other
communities, corporations, or individuals for the services provided by
said hospital district; and they may further receive in said hospitals
and other health care facilities and furnish proper and adequate
services to all persons not residents of said district at such
reasonable and fair compensation as may be considered proper:
PROVIDED, That it must at all times make adequate provision for the
needs of the district and residents of said district shall have prior
rights to the available hospital and other health care facilities of
said district, at rates set by the district commissioners.
(4) For the purpose aforesaid, it shall be lawful for any district
so organized to take, condemn and purchase, lease, or acquire, any and
all property, and property rights, including state and county lands,
for any of the purposes aforesaid, and any and all other facilities
necessary or convenient, and in connection with the construction,
maintenance, and operation of any such hospitals and other health care
facilities, subject, however, to the applicable limitations provided in
subsection (2) of this section.
(5) To contract indebtedness or borrow money for corporate purposes
on the credit of the corporation or the revenues of the hospitals
thereof, and the revenues of any other facilities or services that the
district is or hereafter may be authorized by law to provide, and to
issue and sell: (a) Revenue bonds, revenue warrants, or other revenue
obligations therefor payable solely out of a special fund or funds into
which the district may pledge such amount of the revenues of the
hospitals thereof, and the revenues of any other facilities or services
that the district is or hereafter may be authorized by law to provide,
to pay the same as the commissioners of the district may determine,
such revenue bonds, warrants, or other obligations to be issued and
sold in the same manner and subject to the same provisions as provided
for the issuance of revenue bonds, warrants, or other obligations by
cities or towns under the municipal revenue bond act, chapter 35.41
RCW, as may hereafter be amended; (b) general obligation bonds therefor
in the manner and form as provided in RCW 70.44.110 and 70.44.130, as
may hereafter be amended; or (c) interest-bearing warrants to be drawn
on a fund pending deposit in such fund of money sufficient to redeem
such warrants and to be issued and paid in such manner and upon such
terms and conditions as the board of commissioners may deem to be in
the best interest of the district; and to assign or sell hospital
accounts receivable, and accounts receivable for the use of other
facilities or services that the district is or hereafter may be
authorized by law to provide, for collection with or without recourse.
General obligation bonds shall be issued and sold in accordance with
chapter 39.46 RCW. Revenue bonds, revenue warrants, or other revenue
obligations may be issued and sold in accordance with chapter 39.46
RCW. In connection with the issuance of bonds, a public hospital
district is, in addition to its other powers, authorized to grant a
lien on any or all of its property, whether then owned or thereafter
acquired, including the revenues and receipts from the property,
pursuant to a mortgage, deed of trust, security agreement, or any other
security instrument now or hereafter authorized by applicable law:
PROVIDED, That such bonds are issued in connection with a federal
program providing mortgage insurance, including but not limited to the
mortgage insurance programs administered by the United States
department of housing and urban development pursuant to sections 232,
241, and 242 of Title II of the national housing act, as amended.
(6) To raise revenue by the levy of an annual tax on all taxable
property within such public hospital district not to exceed fifty cents
per thousand dollars of assessed value, and an additional annual tax on
all taxable property within such public hospital district not to exceed
twenty-five cents per thousand dollars of assessed value, or such
further amount as has been or shall be authorized by a vote of the
people. Although public hospital districts are authorized to impose
two separate regular property tax levies, the levies shall be
considered to be a single levy for purposes of the limitation provided
for in chapter 84.55 RCW. Public hospital districts are authorized to
levy such a general tax in excess of their regular property taxes when
authorized so to do at a special election conducted in accordance with
and subject to all of the requirements of the Constitution and the laws
of the state of Washington now in force or hereafter enacted governing
the limitation of tax levies. The said board of district commissioners
is authorized and empowered to call a special election for the purpose
of submitting to the qualified voters of the hospital district a
proposition or propositions to levy taxes in excess of its regular
property taxes. The superintendent shall prepare a proposed budget of
the contemplated financial transactions for the ensuing year and file
the same in the records of the commission on or before the first day of
November. Notice of the filing of said proposed budget and the date
and place of hearing on the same shall be published for at least two
consecutive weeks, at least one time each week, in a newspaper printed
and of general circulation in said county. On or before the fifteenth
day of November the commission shall hold a public hearing on said
proposed budget at which any taxpayer may appear and be heard against
the whole or any part of the proposed budget. Upon the conclusion of
said hearing, the commission shall, by resolution, adopt the budget as
finally determined and fix the final amount of expenditures for the
ensuing year. Taxes levied by the commission shall be certified to and
collected by the proper county officer of the county in which such
public hospital district is located in the same manner as is or may be
provided by law for the certification and collection of port district
taxes. The commission is authorized, prior to the receipt of taxes
raised by levy, to borrow money or issue warrants of the district in
anticipation of the revenue to be derived by such district from the
levy of taxes for the purpose of such district, and such warrants shall
be redeemed from the first money available from such taxes when
collected, and such warrants shall not exceed the anticipated revenues
of one year, and shall bear interest at a rate or rates as authorized
by the commission.
(7) To enter into any contract with the United States government or
any state, municipality, or other hospital district, or any department
of those governing bodies, for carrying out any of the powers
authorized by this chapter.
(8) To sue and be sued in any court of competent jurisdiction:
PROVIDED, That all suits against the public hospital district shall be
brought in the county in which the public hospital district is located.
(9) To pay actual necessary travel expenses and living expenses
incurred while in travel status for (a) qualified physicians or other
health care practitioners who are candidates for medical staff
positions, and (b) other qualified persons who are candidates for
superintendent or other managerial and technical positions, which
expenses may include expenses incurred by family members accompanying
the candidate, when the district finds that hospitals or other health
care facilities owned and operated by it are not adequately staffed and
determines that personal interviews with said candidates to be held in
the district are necessary or desirable for the adequate staffing of
said facilities.
(10) To employ superintendents, attorneys, and other technical or
professional assistants and all other employees; to make all contracts
useful or necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter,
including, but not limited to, (a) contracts with private or public
institutions for employee retirement programs, and (b) contracts with
current or prospective employees, physicians, or other health care
practitioners providing for the payment or reimbursement by the public
hospital district of health care training or education expenses,
including but not limited to debt obligations, incurred by current or
prospective employees, physicians, or other health care practitioners
in return for their agreement to provide services beneficial to the
public hospital district; to print and publish information or
literature; and to do all other things necessary to carry out the
provisions of this chapter.
(11) To solicit and accept gifts, grants, conveyances, bequests,
and devises of real or personal property, or both, in trust or
otherwise, and to sell, lease, exchange, invest, or expend gifts or the
proceeds, rents, profits, and income therefrom, and to enter into
contracts with for-profit or nonprofit organizations to support the
purposes of this subsection, including, but not limited to, contracts
providing for the use of district facilities, property, personnel, or
services.