H-4042.1  _______________________________________________

                    SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2553

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      53rd Legislature     1994 Regular Session

By House Committee on Environmental Affairs (originally sponsored by Representative Rust; by request of Department of Ecology and Office of Marine Safety)

Read first time 02/04/94.

Changing oil spill response account payments.

    AN ACT Relating to oil spill response accounts; and amending RCW 90.56.510.

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

    Sec. 1.  RCW 90.56.510 and 1993 c 162 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

    (1) The oil spill administration account is created in the state treasury.  All receipts from RCW 82.23B.020(2) shall be deposited in the account.  Moneys from the account may be spent only after appropriation.  The account is subject to allotment procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW.  On July 1 of each odd-numbered year, if receipts deposited in the account from the tax imposed by RCW 82.23B.020(2) for the previous fiscal biennium exceed the amount appropriated from the account for the previous fiscal biennium, the state treasurer shall transfer the amount of receipts exceeding the appropriation to the oil spill response account.  If, on the first day of any calendar month, the balance of the oil spill response account is greater than twenty-five million dollars and the balance of the oil spill administration account exceeds the unexpended appropriation for the current biennium, then the tax under RCW 82.23B.020(2) shall be suspended on the first day of the next calendar month until the beginning of the following biennium, provided that the tax shall not be suspended during the last six months of the biennium.  If the tax imposed under RCW 82.23B.020(2) is suspended during two consecutive biennia, the department shall by November 1st after the end of the second biennium, recommend to the appropriate standing committees an adjustment in the tax rate.  For the ((period 1991‑93)) biennium ending June 30, 1995, the state treasurer may transfer funds from the oil spill response account to the oil spill administration account in amounts necessary to support appropriations made from the oil spill administration account in the ((omnibus)) supplemental appropriations act adopted not later than June 30, 1994.

    (2) Expenditures from the oil spill administration account shall be used exclusively for the administrative costs related to the purposes of this chapter, and chapters 90.48, 88.40, and 88.46 RCW.  Starting with the 1995-1997 biennium, the legislature shall give activities of state agencies related to prevention of oil spills priority in funding from the oil spill administration account.  Costs of administration include the costs of:

    (a) Routine responses not covered under RCW 90.56.500;

    (b) Management and staff development activities;

    (c) Development of rules and policies and the state-wide plan provided for in RCW 90.56.060;

    (d) Facility and vessel plan review and approval, drills, inspections, investigations, enforcement, and litigation;

    (e) Interagency coordination and public outreach and education;

    (f) Collection and administration of the tax provided for in chapter 82.23B RCW; and

    (g) Appropriate travel, goods and services, contracts, and equipment.

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