"NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   Washington is home to some of the world's most innovative companies, researchers, entrepreneurs, and workers. Talent and creativity exist in all areas of Washington, but economic experience around the world shows that economic impact can be particularly large where talent and resources are densely concentrated. All over the world, small, specific areas are becoming focal points for economic change and leadership. These areas have name recognition, attract some of the best talent, and provide a strong sense of community among the people who work there. Washington is home to some of these areas now and needs to have more of them in the future. It is the intent of the legislature that Washington support the identification and promotion of innovation partnership zones to advance Washington's position in the world economy. Washington is a national leader in economic strategy based on clusters of industries, promoting the connections among firms, suppliers, customers, and public resources. Washington's innovation partnership zone strategy is an extension of that policy to promote research-based firms and industries in specific areas that become globally recognized as hubs of innovation and expertise.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 43.330 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The director shall designate innovation partnership zones on the basis of the following criteria:
     (a) Innovation partnership zones must have three types of institutions operating within their boundaries, or show evidence of planning and local partnerships that will lead to dense concentrations of these institutions:
     (i) Research capacity in the form of a university or community college fostering commercially valuable research, nonprofit institutions creating commercially applicable innovations, or a national laboratory;
     (ii) Dense proximity of globally competitive firms in a research-based industry or industries or of individual firms with innovation strategies linked to (a)(i) of this subsection. A globally competitive firm may be signified through international organization for standardization 9000 or 1400 certification, or other recognized evidence of international success; and
     (iii) Training capacity either within the zone or readily accessible to the zone. The training capacity requirement may be met by the same institution as the research capacity requirement, to the extent both are associated with an educational institution in the proposed zone.
     (b) The support of a local jurisdiction, a research institution, an educational institution, an industry or cluster association, a workforce development council, and an associate development organization, port, or chamber of commerce;
     (c) Identifiable boundaries for the zone within which the applicant will concentrate efforts to connect innovative researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, industry associations or clusters, and training providers. The geographic area defined should lend itself to a distinct identity and have the capacity to accommodate firm growth;
     (d) The innovation partnership zone administrator must be an economic development council, port, workforce development council, city, or county.
     (2) On October 1st of each year, the director shall designate innovation partnership zones on the basis of applications that meet the legislative criteria, estimated economic impact of the zone, and evidence of forward planning for the zone.
     (3) Innovation partnership zones are eligible for funds and other resources as provided by the legislature or at the discretion of the governor.
     (4) If the innovation partnership zone meets the other requirements of the fund sources, then the zone is eligible for the following funds relating to:
     (a) The local infrastructure financing tools program;
     (b) The sales and use tax for public facilities in rural counties; and
     (c) Job skills.
     (5) An innovation partnership zone shall be designated as a zone for a four-year period. At the end of the four-year period, the zone must reapply for the designation through the department.
     (6) The department shall convene annual information sharing events for innovation partnership zone administrators and other interested parties.
     (7) An innovation partnership zone shall provide performance measures as required by the director, including but not limited to private investment measures, job creation measures, and measures of innovation such as licensing of ideas in research institutions, patents, or other recognized measures of innovation. The Washington state economic development commission may review annually the individual innovation partnership zone's performance measures.

Sec. 3   RCW 39.102.070 and 2006 c 181 s 205 are each amended to read as follows:
     The use of local infrastructure financing under this chapter is subject to the following conditions:
     (1) No funds may be used to finance, design, acquire, construct, equip, operate, maintain, remodel, repair, or reequip public facilities funded with taxes collected under RCW 82.14.048;
     (2)(a) Except as provided in (b) of this subsection no funds may be used for public improvements other than projects identified within the capital facilities, utilities, housing, or transportation element of a comprehensive plan required under chapter 36.70A RCW;
     (b) Funds may be used for public improvements that are historical preservation activities as defined in RCW 39.89.020;
     (c) Funds may be used for innovation partnership zones, as provided under section 2 of this act;
     (3) The public improvements proposed to be financed in whole or in part using local infrastructure financing are expected to encourage private development within the revenue development area and to increase the fair market value of real property within the revenue development area;
     (4) A sponsoring local government, participating local government, or participating taxing district has entered or expects to enter into a contract with a private developer relating to the development of private improvements within the revenue development area or has received a letter of intent from a private developer relating to the developer's plans for the development of private improvements within the revenue development area;
     (5) Private development that is anticipated to occur within the revenue development area, as a result of the public improvements, will be consistent with the county-wide planning policy adopted by the county under RCW 36.70A.210 and the local government's comprehensive plan and development regulations adopted under chapter 36.70A RCW;
     (6) The governing body of the sponsoring local government, and any cosponsoring local government, must make a finding that local infrastructure financing:
     (a) Is not expected to be used for the purpose of relocating a business from outside the revenue development area, but within this state, into the revenue development area; and
     (b) Will improve the viability of existing business entities within the revenue development area;
     (7) The governing body of the sponsoring local government, and any cosponsoring local government, finds that the public improvements proposed to be financed in whole or in part using local infrastructure financing are reasonably likely to:
     (a) Increase private residential and commercial investment within the revenue development area;
     (b) Increase employment within the revenue development area;
     (c) Improve the viability of any existing communities that are based on mixed-use development within the revenue development area; and
     (d) Generate, over the period of time that the local option sales and use tax will be imposed under RCW 82.14.475, state excise tax allocation revenues and state property tax allocation revenues derived from the revenue development area that are equal to or greater than the respective state contributions made under this chapter;
     (8) The sponsoring local government may only use local infrastructure financing in areas deemed in need of economic development or redevelopment within boundaries of the sponsoring local government.

Sec. 4   RCW 82.14.370 and 2004 c 130 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The legislative authority of a rural county may impose a sales and use tax in accordance with the terms of this chapter. The tax is in addition to other taxes authorized by law and shall be collected from those persons who are taxable by the state under chapters 82.08 and 82.12 RCW upon the occurrence of any taxable event within the county. The rate of tax shall not exceed 0.08 percent of the selling price in the case of a sales tax or value of the article used in the case of a use tax, except that for rural counties with population densities between sixty and one hundred persons per square mile, the rate shall not exceed 0.04 percent before January 1, 2000.
     (2) The tax imposed under subsection (1) of this section shall be deducted from the amount of tax otherwise required to be collected or paid over to the department of revenue under chapter 82.08 or 82.12 RCW. The department of revenue shall perform the collection of such taxes on behalf of the county at no cost to the county.
     (3)(a) Moneys collected under this section shall only be used to finance public facilities serving economic development purposes in rural counties or for innovation partnership zones, as provided under section 2 of this act. The public facility must be listed as an item in the officially adopted county overall economic development plan, or the economic development section of the county's comprehensive plan, or the comprehensive plan of a city or town located within the county for those counties planning under RCW 36.70A.040. For those counties that do not have an adopted overall economic development plan and do not plan under the growth management act, the public facility must be listed in the county's capital facilities plan or the capital facilities plan of a city or town located within the county.
     (b) In implementing this section, the county shall consult with cities, towns, and port districts located within the county and the associate development organization serving the county to ensure that the expenditure meets the goals of chapter 130, Laws of 2004 and the requirements of (a) of this subsection. Each county collecting money under this section shall report to the office of the state auditor, no later than October 1st of each year, a list of new projects from the prior fiscal year, showing that the county has used the funds for those projects consistent with the goals of chapter 130, Laws of 2004 and the requirements of (a) of this subsection. Any projects financed prior to June 10, 2004, from the proceeds of obligations to which the tax imposed under subsection (1) of this section has been pledged shall not be deemed to be new projects under this subsection.
     (c) For the purposes of this section, (i) "public facilities" means bridges, roads, domestic and industrial water facilities, sanitary sewer facilities, earth stabilization, storm sewer facilities, railroad, electricity, natural gas, buildings, structures, telecommunications infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, or commercial infrastructure, and port facilities in the state of Washington; and (ii) "economic development purposes" means those purposes which facilitate the creation or retention of businesses and jobs in a county.
     (4) No tax may be collected under this section before July 1, 1998. No tax may be collected under this section by a county more than twenty-five years after the date that a tax is first imposed under this section.
     (5) For purposes of this section, "rural county" means a county with a population density of less than one hundred persons per square mile or a county smaller than two hundred twenty-five square miles as determined by the office of financial management and published each year by the department for the period July 1st to June 30th.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   A new section is added to chapter 43.330 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The Washington state economic development commission shall, with the advice of an innovation partnership advisory group selected by the commission, have oversight responsibility for the implementation of the state's efforts to further innovation partnerships throughout the state. The commission shall:
     (a) Provide information and advice to the department of community, trade, and economic development to assist in the implementation of the innovation partnership zone program, including criteria to be used in the selection of grant applicants for funding;
     (b) Document clusters of companies throughout the state that have comparative competitive advantage or the potential for comparative competitive advantage, using the process and criteria for identifying strategic clusters developed by the working group specified in subsection (2) of this section;
     (c) Conduct an innovation opportunity analysis to identify (i) the strongest current intellectual assets and research teams in the state focused on emerging technologies and their commercialization, and (ii) faculty and researchers that could increase their focus on commercialization of technology if provided the appropriate technical assistance and resources;
     (d) Based on its findings and analysis, and in conjunction with the higher education coordinating board and research institutions:
     (i) Develop a plan to build on existing, and develop new, intellectual assets and innovation research teams in the state in research areas where there is a high potential to commercialize technologies. The commission shall present the plan to the governor and legislature by December 31, 2007. The higher education coordinating board shall be responsible for implementing the plan in conjunction with the publicly funded research institutions in the state. The plan shall address the following elements and such other elements as the commission deems important:
     (A) Specific mechanisms to support, enhance, or develop innovation research teams and strengthen their research and commercialization capacity in areas identified as useful to strategic clusters and innovative firms in the state;
     (B) Identification of the funding necessary for laboratory infrastructure needed to house innovation research teams;
     (C) Specification of the most promising research areas meriting enhanced resources and recruitment of significant entrepreneurial researchers to join or lead innovation research teams;
     (D) The most productive approaches to take in the recruitment, in the identified promising research areas, of a minimum of ten significant entrepreneurial researchers over the next ten years to join or lead innovation research teams;
     (E) Steps to take in solicitation of private sector support for the recruitment of entrepreneurial researchers and the commercialization activity of innovation research teams; and
     (F) Mechanisms for ensuring the location of innovation research teams in innovation partnership zones;
     (ii) Provide direction for the development of comprehensive entrepreneurial assistance programs at research institutions. The programs may involve multidisciplinary students, faculty, entrepreneurial researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors in building business models and evolving business plans around innovative ideas. The programs may provide technical assistance and the support of an entrepreneur-in-residence to innovation research teams and offer entrepreneurial training to faculty, researchers, undergraduates, and graduate students. Curriculum leading to a certificate in entrepreneurship may also be offered;
     (e) Develop performance measures to be used in evaluating the performance of innovation research teams, the implementation of the plan and programs under (d)(i) and (ii) of this subsection, and the performance of innovation partnership zone grant recipients, including but not limited to private investment measures, business initiation measures, job creation measures, and measures of innovation such as licensing of ideas in research institutions, patents, or other recognized measures of innovation. The performance measures developed shall be consistent with the economic development commission's comprehensive plan for economic development and its standards and metrics for program evaluation. The commission shall report to the legislature and the governor by December 31, 2008, on the measures developed; and
     (f) Using the performance measures developed, perform a biennial assessment and report, the first of which shall be due December 31, 2012, on:
     (i) Commercialization of technologies developed at state universities, found at other research institutions in the state, and facilitated with public assistance at existing companies;
     (ii) Outcomes of the funding of innovation research teams and recruitment of significant entrepreneurial researchers;
     (iii) Comparison with other states of Washington's outcomes from the innovation research teams and efforts to recruit significant entrepreneurial researchers; and
     (iv) Outcomes of the grants for innovation partnership zones.
The report shall include recommendations for modifications of this act and of state commercialization efforts that would enhance the state's economic competitiveness.
     (2) The economic development commission and the workforce training and education coordinating board shall jointly convene a working group to:
     (a) Specify the process and criteria for identification of substate geographic concentrations of firms or employment in an industry and the industry's customers, suppliers, supporting businesses, and institutions, which process will include the use of labor market information from the employment security department and local labor markets; and
     (b) Establish criteria for identifying strategic clusters which are important to economic prosperity in the state, considering cluster size, growth rate, and wage levels among other factors.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   If specific funding for the purposes of section 5 of this act, referencing this act by bill or chapter number, is not provided by June 30, 2007, in the omnibus appropriations act, this act is null and void.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 7   Section 3 of this act expires June 30, 2039."