H-2358              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 2216

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By Representatives Day, D. Sommers, Walk, Moyer, Schmidt, Rector, Wolfe, R. Fisher, Silver, Cooper, Prince, Dellwo and Fuhrman.

Read first time 3/22/89 and referred to Committee on Transportation.

AN ACT Relating to the Spokane river toll bridge; amending RCW 47.56.711; creating new sections; repealing RCW 47.56.712, 47.56.713, 47.56.714, 47.56.715, and 47.56.716; making an appropriation; and providing a contingent effective date.

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

        Sec. 1.  Section 1, chapter 131, Laws of 1979 and RCW 47.56.711 are each amended to read as follows:

          ((In order to permit the construction of a new)) The state highway bridge across the Spokane river in the vicinity of Trent Avenue in Spokane((, the department of transportation acting through the transportation commission is authorized to enter into a contract or contracts with the Washington public employees' retirement system and the Washington state teachers' retirement system, each retirement system acting through the department of retirement systems, pursuant to which the state may issue refunding bonds to be exchanged for all outstanding Spokane river toll bridge revenue bonds held by the retirement systems in return for the agreement by the retirement systems to permit the construction of a new state highway bridge, to)) shall be known and designated as the James E. Keefe bridge((, across the Spokane river in the vicinity of Trent Avenue in Spokane.  If the department of transportation and those retirement systems enter into such contract or contracts, the state finance committee is authorized to issue refunding bonds in accordance with RCW 47.56.711 through 47.56.716 to carry out the terms of such contract or contracts)).

After the effective date of this section, the Spokane river toll bridge shall be known as the Maple Street bridge and its ownership shall revert to  the city of Spokane.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     The city of Spokane shall be responsible for operating and maintaining the Spokane river toll bridge and the surrounding area except:

          (1) The department of transportation shall remove the toll booths and restripe the approaches, as necessary, once the tolls have been removed.

          (2) The department of transportation shall replace the bridge deck and upgrade the approaches.  In order to accomplish this activity, the department of transportation shall pursue federal bridge replacement funds and the city of Spokane shall contribute three hundred thousand dollars towards the required matching funds.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  The following acts or parts of acts are each repealed:

                   (1) Section 2, chapter 131, Laws of 1979 and RCW 47.56.712;

          (2) Section 3, chapter 131, Laws of 1979 and RCW 47.56.713;

          (3) Section 4, chapter 131, Laws of 1979 and RCW 47.56.714;

          (4) Section 5, chapter 131, Laws of 1979 and RCW 47.56.715; and

          (5) Section 6, chapter 131, Laws of 1979 and RCW 47.56.716.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.     The state treasurer shall transfer all remaining funds in the Spokane river toll bridge revenue account to the motor vehicle fund to be used for the following purposes:

          (1) Repay existing loans from the motor vehicle fund to the Spokane river toll bridge revenue account in the amount of six hundred sixteen thousand two dollars and thirty-three cents;

          (2) Fund removal of toll booths and associated repairs on the Spokane river toll bridge; and

          (3) Fund preliminary engineering of the bridge deck replacement on the Spokane river toll bridge.

          Any remaining funds are reserved to provide matching funds for federal bridge replacement funds to replace the bridge deck in the 1991-93 biennium.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.     The sum of two million seven hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated from the motor vehicle fund to the state treasurer for the biennium ending June 30, 1991, for the sole purpose of retiring or defeasing any outstanding bonds issued under RCW 47.56.711.  This appropriation is not subject to the provisions of RCW 47.56.715.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6.     Sections 1 through 4 of this act shall take effect September 15, 1989,  only if the bonds issued under RCW 47.56.711 for the Spokane river toll bridge have been retired or fully defeased, and shall become null and void if the bonds have not been retired or fully defeased on that date.