H-4301              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1827

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1988 Regular Session

By Representatives Jones, Jacobsen, Fox, Sayan, Belcher and P. King

Read first time 1/27/88 and referred to Committee on Trade & Economic Development.

AN ACT Relating to the economic stabilization fund; adding new sections to chapter 43.63A RCW; creating a new section; and making an appropriation.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     The legislature finds that the economic health of the state of Washington depends upon the ability of the state's residents to work at quality jobs with adequate pay and healthy working conditions.  The legislature further finds that the state has a substantial and continuing interest in assuring the viability of those firms which are already in operation in the state, and which will continue to employ a majority of the state's workforce for many years.  The legislature finds that the state of Washington has lost approximately fifty thousand jobs per year from 1979 through 1985 as a result of plant closures, business failures, and mass layoffs.  These job losses have caused suffering and dislocation to workers, families, and communities, and have produced substantial costs to the public and to the state treasury.  Among these costs are increases in unemployment compensation and public assistance expenditures, as well as the loss of taxes paid by workers and businesses.  Increased social and health program costs also result from high levels of unemployment.  The legislature therefore intends to prevent the permanent closure of industrial facilities resulting in the dislocation of employees and resultant economic distress in affected local communities.  This shall be achieved by commissioning studies of the feasibility of continuing or renewing the operation of facilities which are threatened with closure or which have already ceased operation.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 43.63A RCW to read as follows:

          (1) The department of community development shall develop and administer an economic stabilization matching fund.  Those eligible to receive funds from the economic stabilization matching fund are those local government and local nonprofit organizations with board membership representative of a broad cross-section of the community.

          (2) Funds provided shall be transferred from the economic stabilization matching fund only to those eligible local government or local nonprofit organizations which provide equal matching funds for use as specified in this section.  The department of community development shall determine which eligible organizations are to receive the matching funds, based upon need.

          (3) In carrying out the duties described under this section, the department of community development shall cooperate and work in conjunction with the business assistance center, the small business development center, the department of community development's economic revitalization team, the department of community development's employee ownership program, the department of economic security's job training division, and other appropriate state and local government agencies and nonprofit organizations.

          (4) Funds provided under this section shall be used to finance studies concerning the feasibility of continuing or renewing the operation of industrial facilities which are threatened with closure or which have already closed.  Such studies may include but are not limited to the possibilities for transfer of ownership, the potential markets for products of the facility, and the potential financial resources available to the facility.  Priority in award of funds shall be given first to industrial facilities with large employment, then to industrial facilities in distressed areas, then to those mature industries in Washington which have disproportionately suffered plant closures, and finally to employee buyouts.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  A new section is added to chapter 43.63A RCW to read as follows:

          The department of community development shall make an annual report to the legislature on the number of studies funded through the program, the program expenditures, the number of jobs saved, and the impact on affected communities.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.     The sum of seventy-five thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1989, from the general fund to the department of community development for the purposes of this act.