H-0589.2  _______________________________________________

                          HOUSE BILL 1599

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      56th Legislature     1999 Regular Session

By Representatives McMorris, Doumit, Clements, Constantine, Sheahan, Grant, G. Chandler, Linville, Rockefeller, D. Schmidt, Kessler and Schoesler

Read first time 01/29/1999.  Referred to Committee on Local Government.

Creating an account to reimburse counties for extraordinary costs in the criminal justice system.

    AN ACT Relating to court funding; and adding new sections to chapter 43.330 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 43.330 RCW to read as follows:

    The extraordinary criminal justice assistance account is created in the state treasury.  Appropriations may be made from the general fund or the public safety and education account into this account.  Moneys in the account may be spent only after appropriation and as authorized by the legislature.  Expenditures from the account may be used only to reimburse the extraordinary costs associated with the prosecution, indigent defense, jury impanelment, expert witnesses, interpreters, incarceration, and other adjudication costs of aggravated murder cases.  Only the director of community, trade, and economic development or the director's designee may authorize expenditures from the account.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 43.330 RCW to read as follows:

    Eligible counties may submit claims to the department of community, trade, and economic development for reimbursement from the extraordinary criminal justice assistance account.  Counties are eligible to submit claims if their total costs for investigating and adjudicating an aggravated murder case or cases are equal to twelve percent of the most recent county law and justice budget adopted by the county's legislative authority.  For purposes of this section, a county's law and justice budget is equal to the combined total of the county's yearly appropriations for the sheriff's office, prosecutor's office, indigent defense providers, jail, and superior court.

    (1) The department of community, trade, and economic development shall develop procedures for processing the claims, for auditing the veracity of the claims, and for prioritizing the claims.  Prioritization of the claims shall be based on, but not limited to, such factors as disproportionate fiscal impact relative to the county budget, efficient use of resources, and whether the costs are extraordinary and could not be reasonably accommodated and anticipated in the normal budget process.

    (2) Before January 1st of each year, the department shall develop and submit to the appropriate fiscal committees of the senate and house of representatives a prioritized list of submitted claims that are recommended for funding by the legislature from the extraordinary criminal justice assistance account.  The list shall include a summary of each claim and the nature of the costs incurred.

    (3) The department shall not financially obligate funds from the extraordinary criminal justice assistance account before the legislature has appropriated funds for a specific list of claims.  The legislature may remove projects from the list recommended by the department.  The legislature shall not change the order of the priorities recommended for funding by the department.

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