AN ACT Relating to the assessment of motor vehicle transportation companies for property tax purposes; amending RCW 84.12.200, 84.12.280, and 84.12.360; creating a new section; and repealing RCW 84.12.290.

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

Sec. 1. Section 84.12.200, chapter 15, Laws of 1961 as amended by section 159, chapter 278, Laws of 1975 1st ex. sess. and RCW 84.12.200 are each amended to read as follows:

For the purposes of this chapter and unless otherwise required by the context:

(1) "Department" without other designation means the department of revenue of the state of Washington.

(2) "Railroad company" shall mean and include 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) (("Motor vehicle transportation company" shall mean and include 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 motor propelled vehicles over any public street and/or highway in this state, between fixed termini or over a regular route, and engaged in the business of transporting persons and/or property for compensation as owner, lessee or otherwise.

~~(4)~~)) "Airplane company" shall mean and include 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.

((~~(5)~~)) (4) "Electric light and power company" shall mean and include 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.

((~~(6)~~)) (5) "Telegraph company" shall mean and include 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.

((~~(7)~~)) (6) "Telephone company" shall mean and include 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.

((~~(8)~~)) (7) "Gas company" shall mean and include 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.

((~~(9)~~)) (8) "Pipe line company" shall mean and include 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.

((~~(10)~~)) (9) "Water company" shall mean and include 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 supply, storage, distribution, diversion or carriage of water in this state, and engaged in the business of furnishing water for power, irrigation, manufacturing, domestic or other uses for compensation, as owner, lessee or otherwise.

((~~(11)~~)) (10) "Heating company" shall mean and include 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 and/or distribution of steam or hot water for heat, power, manufacturing or other purposes in this state, and engaged principally in business of furnishing, distributing, supplying or generating steam or hot water for heat, power, manufacturing or other purposes for compensation, as owner, lessee or otherwise.

((~~(12)~~)) (11) "Toll bridge company" shall mean and include any person owning, controlling, operating, or managing real or personal property, used for or in connection with or to facilitate the conveyance or transportation of persons and/or property over a bridge or bridge approach over any stream, river or body of water within, or partly within this state, and operated as a toll bridge for compensation, as owner, lessee, or otherwise.

((~~(13)~~)) (12) "Steamboat company" shall mean and include 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 vessel or ferry, upon the waters within this state, including the rivers and lakes and Puget Sound, between fixed termini or over a regular route, and engaged in the business of transporting persons and/or property for compensation as owner, lessee or otherwise.

((~~(14)~~)) (13) "Logging railroad company" shall mean and include 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.

((~~(15)~~)) (14) "Person" shall mean and include 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.

((~~(16)~~)) (15) "Company" shall mean and include any railroad company, motor vehicle transportation company, airplane company, electric light and power company, telegraph company, telephone company, gas company, pipe line company, water company, heating company, toll bridge company, steamboat company, or logging railroad company; and the term "companies" shall mean and include all of such companies.

((~~(17)~~)) (16) "Operating property" shall mean and include 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, vessels, ferries, 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 shall mean and include a proportion of such personal property to be determined as in this chapter provided.

((~~(18)~~)) (17) "Nonoperating property" shall mean all physical property owned by any company, other than that used during the preceding calendar year in the conduct of its operations. It shall include 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 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 not be considered material in determining the classification of such property.

Sec. 2. Section 84.12.280, chapter 15, Laws of 1961 and RCW 84.12.280 are each amended to read as follows:

In making the assessment of the operating property of any railroad or logging railroad company and in the apportionment of the values and the taxation thereof, all land occupied and claimed exclusively as the right-of-way for railroads, with all the tracks and substructures and superstructures which support the same, together with all side tracks, second tracks, turn-outs, station houses, depots, round houses, machine shops, or other buildings belonging to the company, used in the operation thereof, without separating the same into land and improvements, shall be assessed as real property. And the rolling stock and other movable property belonging to any railroad or logging railroad company shall be considered as personal property and taxed as such: PROVIDED, That all of the operating property of street railway companies shall be assessed and taxed as personal property.

All of the operating property of airplane companies, telegraph companies, pipe line companies, water companies and toll bridge companies; the ((~~rolling stock of motor vehicle transportation companies and~~)) floating equipment of steamboat companies, and all of the operating property other than lands and buildings of electric light and power companies, telephone companies, gas companies and heating companies shall be assessed and taxed as personal property.

Sec. 3. Section 84.12.360, chapter 15, Laws of 1961 as amended by section 170, chapter 278, Laws of 1975 1st ex. sess. and RCW 84.12.360 are each amended to read as follows:

The actual cash value of the operating property assessed to a company, as fixed and determined by the state board of equalization, shall be apportioned by the department of revenue to the respective counties and to the taxing districts thereof wherein such property is located in the following manner:

(1) Property of steam, suburban, and interurban railroad companies, telegraph companies and pipe line companies‑-upon the basis of that proportion of the value of the total operating property within the state which the mileage of track, as classified by the department of revenue (in case of railroads), mileage of wire (in the case of telegraph companies) and mileage of pipe line (in the case of pipe line companies) within each county or taxing district bears to the total mileage thereof within the state, at the end of the calendar year last past. For the purpose of such apportionment the department may classify railroad track.

(2) Property of street railroad companies, ((~~motor vehicle transportation companies,~~)) telephone companies, electric light and power companies, gas companies, water companies, heating companies and toll bridge companies‑-upon the basis of relative value of the operating property within each county and taxing district to the value of the total operating property within the state to be determined by such factors as the department of revenue shall deem proper.

(3) Planes or other aircraft of airplane companies and watercraft of steamboat companies‑-upon the basis of such factor or factors of allocation, to be determined by the department of revenue, as will secure a substantially fair and equitable division between counties and other taxing districts.

All other property of airplane companies and steamboat companies‑-upon the basis set forth in subdivision (2) hereof.

The basis of apportionment with reference to all public utility companies above prescribed shall not be deemed exclusive and the department of revenue in apportioning values of such companies may also take into consideration such other information, facts, circumstances, or allocation factors as will enable it to make a substantially just and correct valuation of the operating property of such companies within the state and within each county thereof.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. For the purpose of calculating the limitation on tax levies under chapter 84.55 RCW, the first assessed values established by the county assessor for motor vehicle transportation companies shall be treated the same as increases resulting from new construction. The department shall, upon the effective date of this act, transmit to the respective county assessors the information necessary for the county assessor to identify and assess these properties.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. Section 84.12.290, chapter 15, Laws of 1961 and RCW 84.12.290 are each repealed.