S-0675.1  _______________________________________________

                         SENATE BILL 5400

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      56th Legislature     1999 Regular Session

By Senators Haugen, Loveland, Honeyford, Patterson, Horn and Costa

Read first time 01/21/1999.  Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

Clarifying distributions to the office of municipal research.

    AN ACT Relating to distributions to the municipal research council; and amending RCW 82.44.160.

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

    Sec. 1.  RCW 82.44.160 and 1995 c 28 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

    Before distributing moneys to the cities and towns from the ((general fund)) city police and fire protection assistance account, as provided in RCW 82.44.155, and from the municipal sales and use tax equalization account, as provided in RCW 82.14.210, the state treasurer shall, on the first day of July of each year, make an annual deduction therefrom of a sum equal to one-half of the biennial appropriation made pursuant to this section, which amount shall be at least seven cents per capita of the population of all cities or towns as legally certified on that date, determined as provided in RCW 82.44.150, which sum shall be apportioned and transmitted to the municipal research council, herein created.  Sixty-five percent of the annual deduction shall be from the distribution to cities and towns under RCW 82.44.155, and thirty-five percent of the annual deduction shall be from the distribution to the municipal sales and use tax equalization account under RCW 82.14.210.  The municipal research council may contract with and allocate moneys to any state agency, educational institution, or private consulting firm, which in its judgment is qualified to carry on a municipal research and service program.  Moneys may be utilized to match federal funds available for technical research and service programs to cities and towns.  Moneys allocated shall be used for studies and research in municipal government, publications, educational, conferences, and attendance thereat, and in furnishing technical, consultative, and field services to cities and towns in problems relating to planning, public health, municipal sanitation, fire protection, law enforcement, postwar improvements, and public works, and in all matters relating to city and town government.  The programs shall be carried on and all expenditures shall be made in cooperation with the cities and towns of the state acting through the Association of Washington Cities by its board of directors which is hereby recognized as their official agency or instrumentality.

    Funds ((appropriated to the municipal research council)) deducted under this section shall be ((kept)) deposited in the treasury in the general fund, and shall be disbursed by warrant or check to contracting parties on invoices or vouchers certified by the chair of the municipal research council or his or her designee.  Payments to public agencies may be made in advance of actual work contracted for, in the discretion of the council.

    Sixty-five percent of any moneys remaining unexpended or uncontracted for by the municipal research council at the end of any fiscal biennium shall be returned to the ((general fund)) city police and fire protection assistance account and be paid to cities and towns under RCW 82.44.155.  The remaining thirty-five percent shall be deposited into the municipal sales and use tax equalization account.

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