BILL REQ. #:  S-4096.2 

Read first time 02/02/2004.   Referred to Committee on Economic Development.

     AN ACT Relating to tourism promotion areas; amending RCW 35.101.010; and declaring an emergency.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 35.101.010 and 2003 c 148 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.
     (1) "Area" means a tourism promotion area.
     (2) "Legislative authority" means the legislative authority of any county with a population greater than forty thousand but less than one million, or of any city or town within such a county, including unclassified cities or towns operating under special charters.
     (3) "Lodging business" means a ((person that furnishes lodging)) business held out to the public to be an inn, hotel, motel, or public lodging house in which forty or more rooms are furnished for hire to accommodate transient guests and whose lodging services are taxable by the state under chapter 82.08 RCW ((that has forty or more lodging units)).
     (4) "Tourism promotion" means activities and expenditures designed to increase tourism and convention business, including but not limited to advertising, publicizing, or otherwise distributing information for the purpose of attracting and welcoming tourists, and operating tourism destination marketing organizations.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect immediately.