BILL REQ. #:  H-0854.2 

Read first time 02/06/13.   Referred to Committee on Finance.

     AN ACT Relating to the taxation of commuter air carriers; amending RCW 84.12.200, 82.48.010, and 82.48.030; adding a new section to chapter 84.36 RCW; and providing an effective date.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 84.12.200 and 1998 c 335 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     ((For the purposes of this chapter and unless otherwise required by the context:)) The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "Department" without other designation means the department of revenue of the state of Washington.
     (2) "Railroad company" means and includes any person owning or operating a railroad, street railway, suburban railroad or interurban railroad in this state, whether its line of railroad be maintained at the surface, or above or below the surface of the earth, or by whatever power its vehicles are transported; or owning any station, depot, terminal or bridge for railroad purposes, as owner, lessee or otherwise.
     (3)(a) "Airplane company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the conveyance and transportation of persons and/or property by aircraft, and engaged in the business of transporting persons and/or property for compensation, as owner, lessee or otherwise.
     (b) "Airplane company" does not include a "commuter air carrier" as defined in RCW 82.48.010, whose ground property and equipment is located primarily on privately held real property.
     (4) "Electric light and power company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the generation, transmission or distribution of electricity in this state, and engaged in the business of furnishing, transmitting, distributing or generating electrical energy for light, heat or power for compensation as owner, lessee or otherwise.
     (5) "Telegraph company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing any telegraph or cable line in this state, with appliances for the transmission of messages, and engaged in the business of furnishing telegraph service for compensation, as owner, lessee or otherwise.
     (6) "Telephone company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the transmission of communication by telephone in this state through owned or controlled exchanges and/or switchboards, and engaged in the business of furnishing telephonic communication for compensation as owner, lessee or otherwise.
     (7) "Gas company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the manufacture, transportation, or distribution of natural or manufactured gas in this state, and engaged for compensation in the business of furnishing gas for light, heat, power or other use, as owner, lessee or otherwise.
     (8) "Pipe line company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the conveyance or transportation of oils, natural or manufactured gas and/or other substances, except water, by pipe line in this state, and engaged in such business for compensation, as owner, lessee or otherwise.
     (9) "Logging railroad company" means and includes any person owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the conveyance and transportation of forest products by rail in this state, and engaged in the business of transporting forest products either as private carrier or carrier for hire.
     (10) "Person" means and includes any individual, firm, copartnership, joint venture, association, corporation, trust, or any other group acting as a unit, whether mutual, cooperative or otherwise, and/or trustees or receivers appointed by any court.
     (11) "Company" means and includes any railroad company, airplane company, electric light and power company, telegraph company, telephone company, gas company, pipe line company, or logging railroad company; and the term "companies" means and includes all of such companies.
     (12) "Operating property" means and includes all property, real and personal, owned by any company, or held by it as occupant, lessee or otherwise, including all franchises and lands, buildings, rights-of-way, water powers, motor vehicles, wagons, horses, aircraft, aerodromes, hangars, office furniture, water mains, gas mains, pipe lines, pumping stations, tanks, tank farms, holders, reservoirs, telephone lines, telegraph lines, transmission and distribution lines, dams, generating plants, poles, wires, cables, conduits, switch boards, devices, appliances, instruments, equipment, machinery, landing slips, docks, roadbeds, tracks, terminals, rolling stock equipment, appurtenances and all other property of a like or different kind, situate within the state of Washington, used by the company in the conduct of its operations; and, in case of personal property used partly within and partly without the state, it means and includes a proportion of such personal property to be determined as in this chapter provided.
     (13) "Nonoperating property" means all physical property owned by any company, other than that used during the preceding calendar year in the conduct of its operations. It includes all lands and/or buildings wholly used by any person other than the owning company. In cases where lands and/or buildings are used partially by the owning company in the conduct of its operations and partially by any other person not assessable under this chapter under lease, sublease, or other form of tenancy, the operating and nonoperating property of the company whose property is assessed ((hereunder shall)) under this section must be determined by the department of revenue in such manner as will, in its judgment, secure the separate valuation of such operating and nonoperating property upon a fair and equitable basis. The amount of operating revenue received from tenants or occupants of property of the owning company ((shall)) may not be considered material in determining the classification of such property.

Sec. 2   RCW 82.48.010 and 1995 c 318 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     ((For the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise required by the context:)) The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "Aircraft" means any weight-carrying device or structure for navigation of the air which is designed to be supported by the air((;)).
     (2) "Secretary" means the secretary of transportation((;)).
     (3) "Person" includes a firm, partnership, limited liability company, or corporation((;)).
     (4) "Small multi-engine fixed wing" means any piston-driven multi-engine fixed wing aircraft with a maximum gross weight as listed by the manufacturer of less than seventy-five hundred pounds((; and)).
     (5) "Large multi-engine fixed wing" means any piston-driven multi-engine fixed wing aircraft with a maximum gross weight as listed by the manufacturer of seventy-five hundred pounds or more.
     (6) "Commuter air carrier" means an air carrier holding authority under Title 14, Part 298 of the code of federal regulations that carries passengers on at least five round trips per week on at least one route between two or more points according to its published flight schedules that specify the times, days of the week, and places between which those flights are performed.

Sec. 3   RCW 82.48.030 and 1983 2nd ex.s. c 3 s 22 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1)(a) Except as otherwise provided in (b) of this subsection, the amount of the tax imposed by this chapter for each calendar year ((shall be)) is as follows:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   A new section is added to chapter 84.36 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) An aircraft owned and operated by a commuter air carrier in respect to which the tax imposed under RCW 82.48.030 has been paid for a calendar year is exempt from property taxation for that calendar year.
     (2) For the purposes of this section, "aircraft" and "commuter air carrier" have the same meanings as provided in RCW 82.48.010.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   This act takes effect January 1, 2014.