SSB 5560

HOUSE BILL REPORT
SSB 5560

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

As Reported by House Committee On:
Finance

Title: An act relating to making changes of a technical nature to laws relating to taxes or tax programs, administered by the department of revenue.

Sponsors: Senate Committee on Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Schoesler, Zarelli, Regala and Prentice; by request of Department of Revenue).

Majority Report: Do pass. Signed by 9 members: Representatives Hunter, Chair; Hasegawa, Vice Chair; Orcutt, Ranking Minority Member; Condotta, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Conway, Ericks, McIntire, Roach and Santos.

Background:

Inaccuracies in the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) may occur in a variety of ways.

Typographical, drafting, structural, or grammatical errors may be made in bill drafts and floor amendments. Sections may be repealed, recodified, or amended in a way that changes their internal numbering, creating incorrect cross-references. A bill may change a particular term or an entity may be renamed or abolished, and references to these terms or entities in other provisions of the code become inaccurate.

A bill may have contingent effective or expiration dates. Contingent dates lead to a multiplicity of sections, which causes confusion for readers and additional bill drafting complexity.

In a given legislative session, two or more bills may amend the same section of the code without reference to each other. This is called a "double" or "multiple" amendment. Merging multiple amendments may sometimes require the restructuring of a section for grammatical or other reasons.

Some provisions of the code become obsolete with the passage of time. The Washington Legislature may provide a tax reduction, for example, that operates only for a specified number of years or expires on a specified date.

Summary of Bill:

Technical corrections are made to various provisions related to property and excise taxes. These changes include:
   (1)   correcting drafting errors, structural problems such as RCW strings that are not in numeric order, inaccurate references to terms that have been changed, and inaccurate       cross-references;
   (2)   adding or modifying language to clarify statutory provisions;
   (3)   reenacting sections of code to merge multiple amendments; and
   (4)   repealing several obsolete provisions of code.

In addition, a contingency clause in chapter 67, Laws of 2002, making the act null and void if the federal Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act is invalidated by a court, is repealed to eliminate the multiplicity of sections it has generated. The likelihood of court action is extremely remote.

Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed, except section 5, relating to retail sales, which takes effect July 1, 2011.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony:

(In support) Last year we started with an even bigger tax cleanup bill, this time we have scaled it back to make it a smaller bill.