Washington State

House of Representatives

Office of Program Research

BILL

ANALYSIS

Transportation Committee

ESB 5416

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 Engrossed Bill

States that the existing service fee that is due on vehicle certificate of title and registration transactions is also due on vessel certificate of title and registration transactions.
Directs the fee on vessel transactions to be deposited into the General Fund to be distributed to counties and used for boating safety education and law enforcement programs.

Background:

County auditors or other entities, acting as agents and by appointment of the Director of the Department of Licensing (DOL), must provide various vehicle title and registration services to the public. These include processing a report of sale, processing a transitional ownership, processing mail-in vehicle registration renewals, issuing registration and temporary off-road vehicle use permits, issuing registration for snowmobiles, and collecting taxes and fees.

The DOL may appoint privately owned businesses as licensing subagents (subagents) to process these transactions under contract with the county auditor. In addition to any other fees, registration and title transactions processed by a subagent are subject to subagent service fees of $5 for a registration and $12 for a certificate of title. If a registration is processed with a title transfer, then the fee is $12. In 2014 legislation passed that changed the subagent service fee to the service fee and required that it also be collected by the DOL, county auditors, and agents on all vehicle-related transactions. The service fees that are collected by the DOL, county auditors, and agents are deposited into the Capital Vessel Replacement Account.

Summary of Bill:

The service fee that is due on vehicle certificate of title and registration transactions is also due on vessel certificate of title and registration transactions. The service fees that are collected by the DOL, county auditors, and agents are deposited into the General Fund to be distributed to counties and used for boating safety education and law enforcement programs.