BILL REQ. #:  S-4725.2 

READ FIRST TIME 02/02/06.   

     AN ACT Relating to funding for energy assistance; amending RCW 82.16.020; adding a new section to chapter 82.12 RCW; and adding a new section to chapter 82.16 RCW.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 82.16.020 and 1996 c 150 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) There is levied and there shall be collected from every person a tax for the act or privilege of engaging within this state in any one or more of the businesses herein mentioned. The tax shall be equal to the gross income of the business, multiplied by the rate set out after the business, as follows:
     (a) Express, sewerage collection, and telegraph businesses: Three and six-tenths percent;
     (b) Light and power business: Three and sixty-two one-hundredths percent;
     (c) Gas distribution business: Three and six-tenths percent;
     (d) Urban transportation business: Six-tenths of one percent;
     (e) Vessels under sixty-five feet in length, except tugboats, operating upon the waters within the state: Six-tenths of one percent;
     (f) Motor transportation, railroad, railroad car, and tugboat businesses, and all public service businesses other than ones mentioned above: One and eight-tenths of one percent;
     (g) Water distribution business: Four and seven-tenths percent.
     (2) An additional tax is imposed equal to the rate specified in RCW 82.02.030 multiplied by the tax payable under subsection (1) of this section.
     (3)(a) Twenty percent of the moneys collected under subsection (1) of this section on water distribution businesses and sixty percent of the moneys collected under subsection (1) of this section on sewerage collection businesses shall be deposited in the public works assistance account created in RCW 43.155.050.
     (b)(i) The department shall determine the amount of revenue collected under subsection (1)(b) and (c) of this section in the 2004 calendar year, and every year thereafter. The amount of revenue collected in the 2004 calendar year shall constitute base year revenue.
     (ii) Beginning January 1, 2006, and every calendar year thereafter, revenue collected under subsection (1)(b) and (c) of this section that exceeds one hundred five percent of the base year's revenue collections shall be deposited on or before the first day of the next calendar quarter into the energy assistance account created in section 3 of this act.
     (iii) Beginning January 1, 2006, and every calendar year thereafter, the collection of revenues shall be capped and the levy of taxes shall be discontinued for the remainder of the calendar year if revenues collected under subsection (1)(b) and (c) of this section reach one hundred fifty percent of the base year's revenue collections. The department may adopt rules necessary to administer this subsection (3)(b).

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 82.12 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The department shall determine the amount of revenue collected under RCW 82.12.022 in the 2004 calendar year, and every year thereafter. The amount of revenue collected in the 2004 calendar year shall constitute base year revenue.
     (2) Beginning January 1, 2006, and every calendar year thereafter, revenue collected under RCW 82.12.022 that exceeds one hundred five percent of the base year's revenue collections shall be deposited on or before the first day of the next calendar quarter into the energy assistance account created in section 3 of this act.
     (3) Beginning January 1, 2006, and every calendar year thereafter, collection of revenues shall be capped and the levy of taxes shall be discontinued for the remainder of the calendar year if revenues collected under subsection (1)(b) and (c) of this section reach one hundred fifty percent of the base year's revenue collections. The department may adopt rules necessary to administer this section.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 82.16 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The energy assistance account is created in the custody of the state treasurer. All receipts from sections 1 and 2 of this act must be deposited into the account. Only the director of the department of community, trade, and economic development or the director's designee may authorize expenditures from the account. The account is subject to allotment procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW, but an appropriation is not required for expenditures.
     (2) The director of the department of community, trade, and economic development shall distribute the money as follows:
     (a) Fifty percent to the grantees or charitable organizations of the department of community, trade, and economic development which administer federally funded energy assistance programs for the state. Expenditures from the account must be used only for the elderly on fixed incomes or low-income individuals. The department of community, trade, and economic development may adopt rules necessary to administer this section, including reasonable guidelines for determining which elderly on fixed incomes or low-income individuals qualify for assistance;
     (b) Fifty percent to the department of agriculture for grants to assist with the development of customer-generated renewable energy systems utilizing anaerobic digesters as defined in RCW 82.16.110. The department shall distribute the funds in a manner similar to chapter 517, Laws of 2005.