S-4159.1  _______________________________________________

                    SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6745

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington   57th Legislature        2002 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on State & Local Government (originally sponsored by Senators Haugen, Benton, Keiser, B. Sheldon, Poulsen, Winsley, Zarelli, Johnson, Gardner, Hewitt, Prentice, Finkbeiner, Horn, Regala, Rasmussen, Honeyford and Kline)

READ FIRST TIME 02/08/2002.

Implementing a web-based electronic death certificate registration system.

    AN ACT Relating to death certificates; and amending RCW 70.58.107.

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

    Sec. 1.  RCW 70.58.107 and 1997 c 223 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The department of health shall charge a fee of thirteen dollars for certified copies of records and for copies or information provided for research, statistical, or administrative purposes, and eight dollars for a search of the files or records when no copy is made.  The department shall ((prescribe by regulation)) adopt by rule fees to be paid for preparing sealed files and for opening sealed files.

(2) No fee may be demanded or required for furnishing certified copies of a birth, death, fetal death, marriage, divorce, annulment, or legal separation record for use in connection with a claim for compensation or pension pending before the veterans administration.

(3) The department shall keep a true and correct account of all fees received and turn the fees over to the state treasurer on a weekly basis.

(4) Local registrars shall charge the same fees as the state as ((hereinabove)) provided in subsection (1) of this section and as prescribed by the department ((regulation)) by rule, except that local registrars shall charge thirteen dollars for the first copy of a death certificate and eight dollars for each additional copy of the same death certificate when the additional copies are ordered at the same time as the first copy.  All such fees collected, except for five dollars of each fee for the issuance of a certified copy, shall be paid to the jurisdictional health department.

(5) All local registrars in cities and counties shall keep a true and correct account of all fees received under this section for the issuance of certified copies and shall turn five dollars of the fee over to the state treasurer on or before the first day of January, April, July, and October.

(6) Five dollars of each fee imposed for the issuance of certified copies, except for copies suitable for display issued under RCW 70.58.085, at both the state and local levels shall be held by the state treasurer in the death investigations' account established by RCW 43.79.445.

(7) The department and all local registrars in cities and counties must charge a surcharge of one dollar for each fee imposed for certified copies of records and for copies or information provided for research, statistical, or administrative purposes, or for a search of the files or records when no copy is made.  All the revenue generated through this surcharge must be transmitted to the state treasurer on or before the first day of January, April, July, and October.  The state treasurer must distribute these funds to the department of health's center for health statistics, for the sole purpose of implementing a web-based electronic death certificate registration system.  The web-based electronic death certificate registration system must include a function that automatically provides county auditors and the secretary of state with the death certificate information in order to allow those entities to update their voter registration records.  The surcharge imposed under this subsection expires July 1, 2006.

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