AN
ACT Relating to the fruit and vegetable inspection account; amending RCW
15.17.230, 15.17.240, and 15.17.243; reenacting and amending RCW 43.79A.040;
creating new sections; repealing RCW 15.17.245; and providing an effective
date.
BE IT
ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
15.17.230 and 1998 c 154 s 15 are each amended to read as follows:
For the purpose of this chapter the state shall be divided into not
less than ((three)) two fruit and vegetable inspection districts
((to which the director may assign a district manager who shall supervise
and administer regulatory and inspection affairs of the districts)). The
director, by rule, shall establish the boundaries of the districts and may
adjust the boundaries for purposes of efficiency and economy.
Sec.
2. RCW
15.17.240 and 1998 c 154 s 16 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
((The district managers shall collect the fees provided for under this
chapter and deposit them in the fruit and vegetable district fund in any bank
in the district approved for the deposit of state funds. The fees shall be
used to carry out the provisions of this chapter and no appropriation is
required for disbursement from the fund. District managers shall approve
payments from the fruit and vegetable inspection district funds to the fruit
and vegetable inspection trust account in accordance with RCW 15.17.245. On a
monthly basis, each district manager shall provide to the director a detailed
account of the receipts and disbursements for the preceding month.
(2)
Assessments and other fees approved by the director or authorized by law and
collected by the district managers shall be deposited in the fruit and
vegetable inspection district funds and distributed to the appropriate fund or
agency.)) The fruit and vegetable inspection account is
created in the custody of the state treasurer. All fees collected under this
chapter must be deposited into the account. The director may authorize
expenditures from the account solely for the implementation and enforcement of
this chapter and any other expenditures authorized by statute or session law
and applying specifically to the account. The account is subject to allotment
procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW, but an appropriation is not required for
expenditures.
The
director shall establish and maintain an account within the fruit and vegetable
inspection account for each district established under RCW 15.17.230.
(2)
By August 1, 2004, and by August 1st of each even-numbered year thereafter, the
director shall review the balance of each of the district accounts in the fruit
and vegetable inspection account at the end of the previous fiscal year. If
the balance in the district account exceeds the sum of the following: An
amount equal to the total expenditures of the district served by that account
for the last six months of that previous fiscal year; any budgeted capital
expenditures from the account for the current fiscal year; and six hundred
thousand dollars, the director shall temporarily and equally, on a percentage
basis, reduce each of the fees accruing to the district account until such time
that the district account has a balance equal to the amount of the total
expenditures from the account for the last seven months of the previous fiscal
year, at which time the fees shall be returned to the amounts before the
temporary reduction. In making the reductions, the director shall attempt to
reduce fees for a twelve‑month period so as to apply the reductions to as
many of the persons who annually pay fees for services provided by the
district. The temporary fee reductions shall be initially provided through the
adoption of emergency rules. The emergency and subsequent rules temporarily
reducing the fees are exempt from the requirements of RCW 34.05.310 and chapter
19.85 RCW. These fees shall be reinstated through the expiration of the rules
temporarily reducing them and the authority to reinstate them is hereby
granted.
NEW
SECTION. Sec. 3. (1)
Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, any residual balance in
any fruit and vegetable district fund on the effective date of this act shall
be transferred to the fruit and vegetable inspection account established in RCW
15.17.240. Any such residual balance in the district fund for district number
2, as the district is constituted by rule on January 1, 2002, shall be
transferred to the district account for the district containing Yakima county.
Any such residual balance in the district fund for any other district shall be
transferred to the district account for the district not containing Yakima
county. Any residual balance in the fruit and vegetable inspection trust
account on the effective date of this act shall be transferred to the fruit and
vegetable inspection account established in RCW 15.17.240 and shall be equally
distributed among the district accounts.
(2)
The director shall review the residual balance of each of the district funds
transferred to the fruit and vegetable inspection account under subsection (1)
of this section.
(a)
Except as provided in (b) of this subsection, if such a residual balance in the
district fund exceeds an amount equal to the total of the expenditures of the
district served by that fund for the last six months of fiscal year 2002, the
director of agriculture shall temporarily reduce each of the inspection fees
adopted by rule that are collected for inspection services conducted in the
area served by the district as it is constituted on January 1, 2002, and shall
use such excess amount to provide the fee reductions. The fees shall be
temporarily reduced by twelve and one-half percent for that area until the
excess amount remaining is equal to an average one month's expenditures from
the district fund during the six months ending June 30, 2002, at which time the
fees charged shall return to the level of the fees adopted by rule. The amount
equal to the average one month's expenditures shall be deposited in the
district account to which other portions of the residual balance from the
district fund were deposited.
(b)
A portion of the amount transferred to the account from the district fund from
district number three, as the district is constituted by rule on January 1,
2002, shall be used exclusively to reduce the fees charged for inspection services
in the area served by the district as the district is constituted by rule on
January 1, 2002. The fees shall be temporarily reduced by nine and one-half
percent for that area for a period of twelve months at which time the fees
charged shall return to the level of the fees adopted by rule.
Sec.
4. RCW
15.17.243 and 2001 c 92 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
The
district manager for district two as defined in WAC 16‑458‑075 is
authorized to transfer two hundred thousand dollars from the fruit and
vegetable district fund to the plant pest account within the agricultural local
fund. The amount transferred is to be derived from fees collected for state
inspections of tree fruits and is to be used solely for activities related to
the control of Rhagoletis pomonella in district two. The transfer of funds
shall occur by June 1, 1997. On June 30, 2003, any unexpended portion of the
two hundred thousand dollars shall be ((returned)) transferred to
the fruit and vegetable ((district fund)) inspection account and
deposited in the district account for the district that includes Yakima county.
Sec.
5. RCW
43.79A.040 and 2001 c 201 s 4 and 2001 c 184 s 4 are each reenacted and amended
to read as follows:
(1)
Money in the treasurer's trust fund may be deposited, invested, and reinvested
by the state treasurer in accordance with RCW 43.84.080 in the same manner and
to the same extent as if the money were in the state treasury.
(2)
All income received from investment of the treasurer's trust fund shall be set
aside in an account in the treasury trust fund to be known as the investment
income account.
(3)
The investment income account may be utilized for the payment of purchased
banking services on behalf of treasurer's trust funds including, but not
limited to, depository, safekeeping, and disbursement functions for the state
treasurer or affected state agencies. The investment income account is subject
in all respects to chapter 43.88 RCW, but no appropriation is required for
payments to financial institutions. Payments shall occur prior to distribution
of earnings set forth in subsection (4) of this section.
(4)(a)
Monthly, the state treasurer shall distribute the earnings credited to the
investment income account to the state general fund except under (b) and (c) of
this subsection.
(b)
The following accounts and funds shall receive their proportionate share of
earnings based upon each account's or fund's average daily balance for the
period: The college savings program account, the Washington advanced college
tuition payment program account, the agricultural local fund, the American
Indian scholarship endowment fund, the basic health plan self-insurance reserve
account, the Washington international exchange scholarship endowment fund, the
developmental disabilities endowment trust fund, the energy account, the fair
fund, the fruit and vegetable inspection account, the game farm
alternative account, the grain inspection revolving fund, the juvenile
accountability incentive account, the rural rehabilitation account, the stadium
and exhibition center account, the youth athletic facility account, the
self-insurance revolving fund, the sulfur dioxide abatement account, and the
children's trust fund. However, the earnings to be distributed shall first be
reduced by the allocation to the state treasurer's service fund pursuant to RCW
43.08.190.
(c)
The following accounts and funds shall receive eighty percent of their
proportionate share of earnings based upon each account's or fund's average
daily balance for the period: The advanced right of way revolving fund, the
advanced environmental mitigation revolving account, the city and county
advance right-of-way revolving fund, the federal narcotics asset forfeitures
account, the high occupancy vehicle account, the local rail service assistance
account, and the miscellaneous transportation programs account.
(5)
In conformance with Article II, section 37 of the state Constitution, no trust
accounts or funds shall be allocated earnings without the specific affirmative
directive of this section.
NEW
SECTION. Sec. 6. If
fruit and vegetable inspection districts that existed on January 1, 2002, under
RCW 15.17.230 are consolidated or otherwise altered during 2002, the
consolidation or alternation must not result in a reduction of inspection
services or the availability or quality of those services in any of the
districts, but may result in a consolidation of administrative support for
those services.
NEW
SECTION. Sec. 7. RCW
15.17.245 (Fruit and vegetable inspection trust account) and 1998
c 154 s 19, 1987 c 393 s 2, 1986 c 203 s 1, 1969 ex.s. c 76 s 1, & 1961 c
11 s 15.04.100 are each repealed.
NEW
SECTION. Sec. 8. This
act takes effect July 1, 2002. However, the director of the department of
agriculture and the state treasurer may take actions before July 1, 2002, to
permit the creation of the fruit and vegetable inspection account and the
district accounts described in RCW 15.17.240 by July 1, 2002.
