S-5225.1  _______________________________________________

                         SENATE BILL 6876

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      56th Legislature 2000 2nd Special Session

By Senators Loveland and Snyder

Read first time 4/27/00. UNDER SUSPENSION OF THE RULES, READ SECOND AND THIRD TIMES AND PASSED.

Transferring earnings from the emergency reserve fund to the multimodal transportation account. 

    AN ACT Relating to emergency reserve fund earnings for transportation programs; and amending RCW 43.135.045.

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

    Sec. 1.  RCW 43.135.045 and 1994 c 2 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

    (1) The emergency reserve fund is established in the state treasury.  During each fiscal year, the state treasurer shall deposit in the emergency reserve fund all general fund‑-state revenues in excess of the state expenditure limit for that fiscal year.  Deposits shall be made at the end of each fiscal quarter based on projections of state revenues and the state expenditure limit.

    (2) The legislature may appropriate moneys from the emergency reserve fund only with approval of at least two-thirds of the members of each house of the legislature, and then only if the appropriation does not cause total expenditures to exceed the state expenditure limit under this chapter.

    (3) The emergency reserve fund balance shall not exceed five percent of biennial general fund‑-state revenues as projected by the official state revenue forecast.  Any balance in excess of five percent shall be transferred on a quarterly basis by the state treasurer to the education construction fund hereby created in the treasury.

    (4)(a) Funds may be appropriated from the education construction fund exclusively for common school construction or higher education construction.

    (b) Funds may be appropriated for any other purpose only if approved by a two-thirds vote of each house of the legislature and if approved by a vote of the people at the next general election.  An appropriation approved by the people under this subsection shall result in an adjustment to the state expenditure limit only for the fiscal period for which the appropriation is made and shall not affect any subsequent fiscal period.

(5) Earnings of the emergency reserve fund under RCW 43.84.092(4)(a) shall be transferred quarterly to the multimodal transportation account, except for those earnings that are in excess of thirty-five million dollars each fiscal year.  Within thirty days following any fiscal year in which earnings transferred to the multimodal transportation account under this subsection did not total thirty-five million dollars, the state treasurer shall transfer from the emergency reserve fund an amount necessary to bring the total deposited in the multimodal transportation account under this subsection to thirty-five million dollars.  The revenues to the multimodal transportation account reflected in this subsection provide on-going support for the transportation programs of the state.  However, it is the intent of the legislature that any new long-term financial support that may be subsequently provided for transportation programs will be used to replace and supplant the revenues reflected in this subsection, thereby allowing those revenues to be returned to the purposes to which they were previously dedicated.

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