BILL REQ. #:  S-3972.1 

Read first time 02/04/14.   Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

     AN ACT Relating to restoring resources to the capital budget beginning with the 2015-2017 biennium; and amending RCW 82.45.060, 82.16.020, 82.18.040, and 43.135.045.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 82.45.060 and 2013 2nd sp.s. c 9 s 6 are each amended to read as follows:
     There is imposed an excise tax upon each sale of real property at the rate of one and twenty-eight one-hundredths percent of the selling price. Beginning July 1, 2013, and ending June 30, ((2019)) 2015, an amount equal to two percent of the proceeds of this tax must be deposited in the public works assistance account created in RCW 43.155.050, and an amount equal to four and one-tenth percent must be deposited in the education legacy trust account created in RCW 83.100.230. Thereafter, an amount equal to six and one-tenth percent of the proceeds of this tax to the state treasurer must be deposited in the public works assistance account created in RCW 43.155.050. Except as otherwise provided in this section, an amount equal to one and six-tenths percent of the proceeds of this tax to the state treasurer must be deposited in the city-county assistance account created in RCW 43.08.290.

Sec. 2   RCW 82.16.020 and 2013 2nd sp.s. c 9 s 7 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) There is levied and there shall be collected from every person a tax for the act or privilege of engaging within this state in any one or more of the businesses herein mentioned. The tax shall be equal to the gross income of the business, multiplied by the rate set out after the business, as follows:
     (a) Express, sewerage collection, and telegraph businesses: Three and six-tenths percent;
     (b) Light and power business: Three and sixty-two one-hundredths percent;
     (c) Gas distribution business: Three and six-tenths percent;
     (d) Urban transportation business: Six-tenths of one percent;
     (e) Vessels under sixty-five feet in length, except tugboats, operating upon the waters within the state: Six-tenths of one percent;
     (f) Motor transportation, railroad, railroad car, and tugboat businesses, and all public service businesses other than ones mentioned above: One and eight-tenths of one percent;
     (g) Water distribution business: Four and seven-tenths percent.
     (2) An additional tax is imposed equal to the rate specified in RCW 82.02.030 multiplied by the tax payable under subsection (1) of this section.
     (3) Twenty percent of the moneys collected under subsection (1) of this section on water distribution businesses and sixty percent of the moneys collected under subsection (1) of this section on sewerage collection businesses shall be deposited in the education legacy trust account created in RCW 83.100.230 from July 1, 2013, through June 30, ((2019)) 2015, and thereafter in the public works assistance account created in RCW 43.155.050.

Sec. 3   RCW 82.18.040 and 2013 2nd sp.s. c 9 s 8 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Taxes collected under this chapter must be held in trust until paid to the state. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection (1), taxes received by the state must be deposited in the public works assistance account created in RCW 43.155.050. For the period beginning July 1, 2011, and ending June 30, 2015, taxes received by the state under this chapter must be deposited in the general fund for general purpose expenditures. ((For fiscal years 2016, 2017, and 2018, one-half of the taxes received by the state under this chapter must be deposited in the general fund for general purpose expenditures and the remainder deposited in the education legacy trust account created in RCW 83.100.230. For fiscal year 2019, taxes received by the state under this chapter must be deposited in the education legacy trust account created in RCW 83.100.230.)) Any person collecting the tax who appropriates or converts the tax collected is guilty of a gross misdemeanor if the money required to be collected is not available for payment on the date payment is due. If a taxpayer fails to pay the tax imposed by this chapter to the person charged with collection of the tax and the person charged with collection fails to pay the tax to the department, the department may, in its discretion, proceed directly against the taxpayer for collection of the tax.
     (2) The tax is due from the taxpayer within twenty-five days from the date the taxpayer is billed by the person collecting the tax.
     (3) The tax is due from the person collecting the tax at the end of the tax period in which the tax is received from the taxpayer. If the taxpayer remits only a portion of the total amount billed for taxes, consideration, and related charges, the amount remitted must be applied first to payment of the solid waste collection tax and this tax has priority over all other claims to the amount remitted.

Sec. 4   RCW 43.135.045 and 2013 2nd sp.s. c 9 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
     The education construction fund is hereby created in the state treasury.
     (1) Funds may be appropriated from the education construction fund exclusively for common school construction of facility improvements or additions that are consistent with the construction objectives of chapter 3, Laws of 2001 (Initiative Measure No. 728), or for higher education construction.
     (2) Funds may be appropriated for any other purpose only if approved by a two-thirds vote of each house of the legislature and if approved by a vote of the people at the next general election. An appropriation approved by the people under this subsection must result in an adjustment to the state expenditure limit only for the fiscal period for which the appropriation is made and does not affect any subsequent fiscal period.
     (3) After July 1, 2015, the state treasurer must transfer one hundred two million dollars from the general fund to the education construction fund by June 30th of each year.