BILL REQ. #: S-0153.3
| State of Washington | 60th Legislature | 2007 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/29/2007. Referred to Committee on Government Operations & Elections.
AN ACT Relating to withdrawal of territory from a public hospital district and annexation of such territory into an adjoining district providing services; and adding a new section to chapter 70.44 RCW.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 A new section is added to chapter 70.44 RCW
to read as follows:
Territory within a public hospital district may be withdrawn from
a district and annexed into an adjoining district in the following
manner and upon the following conditions:
(1) The petition for withdrawal shall be in writing and shall
designate the boundaries of the territory proposed to be withdrawn from
the district and shall be signed by at least twenty-five percent of the
qualified voters residing within the territory so designated who are
qualified voters on the date of filing such petition. The petition
shall set forth that the territory proposed to be withdrawn is being
served by a hospital in an adjoining district. The petition shall
further set forth that annexation of the territory into the adjoining
district will benefit the general welfare of the territory.
(2) The withdrawal of an area from the boundaries of a public
hospital district shall not exempt any property therein from taxation
for the purpose of paying the costs of redeeming any indebtedness of
the public hospital district existing at the time of the withdrawal.
(3) The petition for withdrawal shall be filed with the county
auditor of each county in which the district is located, and after the
filing no person having signed the petition shall be allowed to
withdraw the person's name. Within ten days after such filing, each
county auditor shall examine and verify the signatures of signers
residing in the respective county. The petition shall be transmitted
to the auditor of the county in which all or the major geographic
portion of the district is located, who shall certify to the
sufficiency or insufficiency of the signatures. If the area proposed
to be withdrawn is located in more than one county, the auditor of the
county in which the largest geographic portion of the area proposed to
be withdrawn is located shall be the lead auditor and shall immediately
transfer a copy of the petitions to the auditor of each other county in
which the area proposed to be withdrawn is located. Within ten days
after the lead auditor received the petition, the auditors of these
other counties shall certify to the lead auditor: (a) The number of
voters of that county residing in the area proposed to be withdrawn who
voted at the last municipal general election; and (b) the number of
valid signatures on the petition of voters of that county residing in
the area proposed to be withdrawn. The lead auditor shall certify the
sufficiency of the petition after receiving this information. If the
petition is found by the county auditor to contain sufficient
signatures, the petition, with a certificate of sufficiency attached,
shall be transmitted to the board of commissioners of the district from
which the petition proposes territory be withdrawn, to the board of
commissioners of the district to which the petition proposes territory
be annexed, and to each legislative authority of the county or counties
in which the territory proposing to be withdrawn and annexed is
located. If the petition is found to be insufficient, it shall be
returned to the persons filing it, who may amend or add names for ten
days, when it shall be returned to the lead auditor, who shall have an
additional fifteen days to examine it and attach the certificate.
(4) Upon receipt of the petition and certificate of sufficiency,
the county legislative authority of the county in which all or the
major geographic portion of the district is located, or the county
legislative authority of the county in which the largest geographic
portion of the area proposed to be withdrawn is located if the area
proposed to be withdrawn is located in more than one county, shall fix
a time and place for hearing and shall cause to be published, at least
once a week for two or more weeks in successive issues of a newspaper
of general circulation in the district, a notice that such petition has
been presented to the county legislative authority stating the time and
place of the hearing and setting forth the boundaries of the territory
proposed to be withdrawn and annexed. The petition shall be heard at
the time and place specified in the notice, or the hearing may be
adjourned from time to time, not exceeding one month in all, and any
person may appear at the hearing and make objections to the withdrawal
and annexation of the territory.
(5) The county legislative authority of each county in which the
district is located shall by resolution cause a special election to be
held not less than thirty days or more than sixty days from the date of
the hearing in subsection (4) of this section. The ballot proposition
shall be in substantially the following form:
"Shall the territory defined by the petition for withdrawal be withdrawn from district . . . . . . (naming it) and annexed to district . . . . . . (naming it)?
| YES □ | NO □" |