HOUSE BILL REPORT

ESHB 1192

BYHouse Committee on Local Government (originally sponsored by Representatives Haugen, Ferguson, Kremen, Winsley, Baugher, Fuhrman, Bristow, Rayburn, Nealey, Cooper, Smith, Raiter, Doty, H. Myers, Rasmussen and Miller)

Authorizing special assessments and a grant program for conservation districts.

House Committe on Local Government

Majority Report:  The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass.  (14)

      Signed by Representatives Haugen, Chair; Cooper, Vice Chair; Ferguson, Ranking Republican Member; Horn, Nealey, Nelson, Nutley, Phillips, Raiter, Rayburn, Todd, Wolfe, Wood and Zellinsky.

House Staff:Steve Lundin (786-7127)

AS PASSED HOUSE MARCH 8, 1989

BACKGROUND:

Conservation districts are special districts authorized to engage in a variety of activities relating to the conservation of soil, water, and other natural resources.  A conservation district is governed by a five-member board of supervisors, three of whom are elected by voters in the district, and two of whom are appointed by the State Conservation Commission.  Funds for conservation districts are obtained from state and federal grants, appropriations by the county in which they are located, and charges for services and activities that the districts provide.

SUMMARY:

Activities and programs to conserve natural resources are declared to be of special benefit to land that may be used as the basis upon which special assessments are imposed. The county legislative authority of the county in which a conservation district is located is authorized to impose limited special assessments for the conservation district.  Public hearings on the assessments must be held each year by both the conservation district and the county legislative authority.  The county legislative authority may accept the system of assessments, or modify and accept the system of assessments, only if it finds the public interest will be served and that the special assessments will not exceed the special benefit that the land will receive from the activities of the district. Provisions are made for posting and publishing notice of the public hearings.

A system of assessments must classify lands in the conservation district into suitable classifications according to benefits to be conferred, determine an annual per acre rate of assessment for each classification, and indicate the total amount of special assessments to be obtained from each classification.  Lands deemed not to receive benefit will be placed into a separate class and shall not be subject to assessments.  The assessment rate shall be stated either as a uniform rate per acre amount, or a flat fee per parcel plus a uniform per acre amount, or each classification.  The maximum per acre rate shall not exceed ten cents per acre.  The maximum per parcel rate shall not exceed five dollars.

Public land, including land owned by the state, is subject to the special assessments.

Forest lands may be subject to special assessments if such lands benefit from the conservation district activities, but the per acre rate of assessment shall not exceed one-tenth of the weighted average per acre rate of special assessments on all other benefited lands.  A per parcel charge may not be imposed upon forest land, but up to a three dollar charge on each forest landowner alternatively may be imposed.  No more than 10,000 acres of forest lands that are owned by the same entity, and located in the same conservation district, may be subject to such special assessments in any year.

Provisions are made for the removal of the authority to proceed on the special assessments if a petition opposing the assessments is filed that has been signed by at least twenty percent of the owners of land subject to the proposed assessments.

The special assessments shall be collected by the county treasurer along with property taxes.  A special assessment shall constitute a lien against the land that shall be subject to the same conditions as a tax lien, and shall be collected in the same manner as a tax lien.

The State Conservation Commission is authorized to make grants to conservation districts, from moneys that may be appropriated for such purposes.  Grants shall be made on or before the last day of June of each year to those districts that submit requests for such grants.  No district shall receive an initial grant in any year exceeding the lesser of: (1) $22,500; or (2) an amount equal to the total moneys received by the district from all other sources during the preceding year, other than from state grants.  Grants are reduced by an equal dollar amount if sufficient moneys were not appropriated.  If moneys remain after the initial grants, additional grants are made to the districts that were limited to initial grants of $22,500, but the total of all of these grants to a district in any year shall not exceed the total of moneys received by the district from all other sources during the preceding year, other than from state grants. Grants under this second grant phase are reduced by an equal dollar amount if sufficient moneys were not appropriated.

Fiscal Note:      Not Requested.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Jackie Reid, Thurston County Conservation District; Howard Jaeger and Ron Juris, Washington Association of Conservation Districts; Hamlet Hilpert and R. L. Kent, Lewis County Conservation District; and R. Troy Colley, Grays Harbor Conservation District.

House Committee - Testified Against:      Dick Junk, Washington Forest Protection Association; and Nels Hanson, Washington Farm Forestry Association.

House Committee - Testimony For:    Conservation districts provide many benefits to land.  They have no stable source of funding.  They are mean and lean and work best with landowners.  New responsibilities have been given to conservation districts.  The total assessments are very limited that can be imposed and the county must authorize them.  Only benefited land could be subjected to the assessments.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      Forest owners do their own conservation activities and get no benefit.