| Passed by the Senate February 10, 2006 YEAS 43 BRAD OWEN ________________________________________ President of the Senate Passed by the House February 28, 2006 YEAS 94 FRANK CHOPP ________________________________________ Speaker of the House of Representatives | I, Thomas Hoemann, Secretary of the Senate of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6382 as passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on the dates hereon set forth. THOMAS HOEMANN ________________________________________ Secretary | |
| Approved March 22, 2006. CHRISTINE GREGOIRE ________________________________________ Governor of the State of Washington | March 22, 2006 - 3:10 p.m. Secretary of State State of Washington |
| State of Washington | 59th Legislature | 2006 Regular Session |
READ FIRST TIME 01/24/06.
AN ACT Relating to authorizing the Washington horse racing commission to expend a statutorily limited amount of its operating funds for the development of the equine industry, improvement of racing facilities, and equine health research; and amending RCW 67.16.280 and 67.16.101.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1 RCW 67.16.280 and 2004 c 246 s 3 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) The Washington horse racing commission operating account is
created in the custody of the state treasurer. All receipts collected
by the commission under RCW 67.16.105(2) must be deposited into the
account. Moneys in the account may be spent only after appropriation.
Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, expenditures from
the account may be used only for operating expenses of the commission.
Investment earnings from the account must be distributed to the
Washington horse racing commission class C purse fund account, created
in RCW 67.16.285, pursuant to RCW 43.79A.040.
(2) In order to provide funding in support of the legislative
findings in RCW 67.16.101 (1) through (3), and to provide additional
necessary support to the nonprofit race meets beyond the funding
provided by RCW 67.16.101(4) and 67.16.102(2), the commission is
authorized to spend up to three hundred thousand dollars per fiscal
year from its operating account for the purpose of developing the
equine industry, maintaining and upgrading racing facilities, and
assisting equine health research. When determining how to allocate the
funds available for these purposes, the commission shall give first
consideration to uses that assist the nonprofit race meets and equine
health research. These expenditures may occur only when sufficient
funds remain for the continued operations of the horse racing
commission.
Sec. 2 RCW 67.16.101 and 1977 ex.s. c 372 s 1 are each amended to
read as follows:
The legislature finds that:
(1) A primary responsibility of the horse racing commission is the
encouragement of the training and development of the equine industry in
the state of Washington whether the result of this training and
development results in legalized horse racing or in the recreational
use of horses;
(2) The horse racing commission has a further major responsibility
to assure that any facility used as a race course should be maintained
and upgraded to insure the continued safety of both the public and the
horse at any time the facility is used for the training or contesting
of these animals;
(3) ((Small race courses)) Nonprofit race meets within the state
have difficulty in obtaining sufficient funds to provide the
maintenance and upgrading necessary to assure this safety at these
facilities, or to permit frequent use of these facilities by 4-H
children or other horse owners involved in training; and
(4) The one percent of the parimutuel machine gross receipts used
to pay a special purse to the licensed owners of Washington bred horses
is available for the purpose of drawing interest, thereby obtaining
((sufficient)) funds to be disbursed to achieve the necessary support
to these ((small race courses)) nonprofit race meets.