S-1608               _______________________________________________

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 5880

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By Senators Barr, McCaslin, Hansen, Saling, Patterson and Owen

Read first time 2/14/89 and referred to Committee on  Governmental Operations.

AN ACT Relating to cemetery districts; amending RCW 68.52.280; and adding new sections to chapter 68.52 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 68.52 RCW to read as follows:

          Whenever a cemetery district is subject to a reduction in or elimination of its property tax levy rate under RCW 84.52.010, the commissioners of the district may adopt resolutions for the levy and collection of a housing unit excise tax that is levied and collected from all persons within the district in such amounts as shall be fixed and determined by the commissioners of the district:  PROVIDED, That the rate of such excise tax shall not exceed a rate necessary to collect an amount equal to the difference between the property tax revenues received after reduction or elimination of the property tax levy rate under RCW 84.52.010 and the amount that would have been received had the full property tax levy rate for the district, taking into account the one hundred six percent limitation in RCW 84.55.010, been used.

          For the purpose of this section, "housing unit" means a building or portion thereof designated for or used as the residence of one or more persons living together, or of one family.

          Any excise tax imposed under this section shall be subject to referendum as specified in section 2 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 68.52 RCW to read as follows:

          Any referendum petition to repeal an excise tax or to alter the rate of the tax authorized under section 1 of this act shall be filed with a filing officer, as identified in the resolution, within seven days of passage of the resolution.  Within ten days, the filing officer shall confer with the petitioner concerning form and style of the petition, issue an identification number for the petition, and write a ballot title for the measure.  The ballot title shall be posed as a question so that an affirmative answer to the question and an affirmative vote on the measure results in the tax or tax rate increase being imposed and a negative answer to the question and a negative vote on the measure results in the tax or tax rate increase not being imposed.  The petitioner shall be notified of the identification number and ballot title within this ten-day period.

          After this notification, the petitioner shall have thirty days in which to secure on petition forms the signatures of not less than fifteen percent of the registered voters of the cemetery district, and to file the signed petitions with the filing officer.  Each petition form shall contain the ballot title and the full text of the measure to be referred.  The filing officer shall verify the sufficiency of the signatures on the petitions.  If sufficient valid signatures are properly submitted, the filing officer shall submit the referendum measure to the cemetery district voters at a general or special election held on one of the dates provided in RCW 29.13.010 as determined by the cemetery district commissioners, which election shall not take place later than one hundred twenty days after the signed petition has been filed with the filing officer.

          The cemetery district commissioners shall have thirty days after the signed petition is filed with the filing officer to withdraw the resolution imposing the excise tax, or to adopt an amendatory resolution altering the rate of the excise tax to a rate at or below the rate specified in the referendum petition, and if such action is taken, the filing officer shall withdraw the measure from the ballot.

          The referendum procedure provided in this section shall be the exclusive method for subjecting any excise tax or the rate of such tax under section 1 of this act to a referendum vote.

        Sec. 3.  Section 20, chapter 6, Laws of 1947 and RCW 68.52.280 are each amended to read as follows:

          It shall be the duty of the county treasurer of the county in which any cemetery district is situated to receive and disburse all district revenues and collect all taxes authorized and levied under this chapter.  There is hereby created in the office of county treasurer of each county in which a cemetery district shall be organized for the use of the district, a cemetery district fund.  All taxes levied for district purposes when collected shall be placed by the county treasurer in the cemetery district fund.

The county treasurer may delegate to the cemetery commission any duties with regard to the determination or collection of the excise tax authorized by section 1 of this act, and the fee charged by the county treasurer for administration of the cemetery district fund shall be reduced by an amount commensurate with the duties performed by the commission.