HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 2044

BYRepresentative Grimm

Relating to bonded indebtedness. (t.o.)

House Staff:Bill Robinson (786-7136)

AS OF MARCH 10, 1988

BACKGROUND:

The State of Washington periodically issues general obligation bonds to finance capital construction projects throughout the state.  The specific legislative approval of a capital project is contained in the capital appropriations act.  Those capital appropriations in the capital budget requiring stat bonding must have separate legislation authorizing the sale of state bonds.  Bond issuance legislation is required by the constitution to have a 60 percent majority vote of the legislature.

SUMMARY:

House Bill 2044 makes technical amendments to the 1985 bond bill by rounding the amounts of the bond issue to the nearest five thousand dollars and reducing the bond authorization for the Department of Fisheries to equal appropriation levels.  The 1987 bond bill is amended to change the bond authorization level for the Department of Fisheries and Washington State University to equal the capital appropriation.

Authorizes the sale of $50.7 million of revenue bonds for construction of a natural resource building and parking facility on the East Capitol Campus.  The bonds are to be financed by parking revenues, rent payments from agencies leasing the new state-owned office building, and the capitol building construction account.  The bill identifies the schedule for the transfer of the revenue sources for the payment of the bonds and amends other statutes to allow the transfer of capitol vehicle parking account revenues to pay the debt service on the bonds.