READ FIRST TIME 02/04/08.   

     AN ACT Relating to the definition of rural county for economic development purposes; amending RCW 43.160.020, 43.168.020, 43.330.086, and 82.16.0491; creating a new section; and providing an effective date.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 43.160.020 and 2004 c 252 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.
     (1) "Board" means the community economic revitalization board.
     (2) "Bond" means any bond, note, debenture, interim certificate, or other evidence of financial indebtedness issued by the board pursuant to this chapter.
     (3) "Department" means the department of community, trade, and economic development.
     (4) "Financial institution" means any bank, savings and loan association, credit union, development credit corporation, insurance company, investment company, trust company, savings institution, or other financial institution approved by the board and maintaining an office in the state.
     (5) "Industrial development facilities" means "industrial development facilities" as defined in RCW 39.84.020.
     (6) "Industrial development revenue bonds" means tax-exempt revenue bonds used to fund industrial development facilities.
     (7) "Local government" or "political subdivision" means any port district, county, city, town, special purpose district, and any other municipal corporations or quasi-municipal corporations in the state providing for public facilities under this chapter.
     (8) "Sponsor" means any of the following entities which customarily provide service or otherwise aid in industrial or other financing and are approved as a sponsor by the board: A bank, trust company, savings bank, investment bank, national banking association, savings and loan association, building and loan association, credit union, insurance company, or any other financial institution, governmental agency, or holding company of any entity specified in this subsection.
     (9) "Umbrella bonds" means industrial development revenue bonds from which the proceeds are loaned, transferred, or otherwise made available to two or more users under this chapter.
     (10) "User" means one or more persons acting as lessee, purchaser, mortgagor, or borrower under a financing document and receiving or applying to receive revenues from bonds issued under this chapter.
     (11) "Public facilities" means a project of a local government or a federally recognized Indian tribe for the planning, acquisition, construction, repair, reconstruction, replacement, rehabilitation, or improvement of bridges, roads, domestic and industrial water, earth stabilization, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, railroad, electricity, telecommunications, transportation, natural gas, buildings or structures, and port facilities, all for the purpose of job creation, job retention, or job expansion.
     (12) "Rural county" ((means a county with a population density of fewer than one hundred persons per square mile as determined by the office of financial management)) has the same meaning as provided in RCW 82.14.370.
     (13) "Rural natural resources impact area" means:
     (a) A nonmetropolitan county, as defined by the 1990 decennial census, that meets three of the five criteria set forth in subsection (14) of this section;
     (b) A nonmetropolitan county with a population of less than forty thousand in the 1990 decennial census, that meets two of the five criteria as set forth in subsection (14) of this section; or
     (c) A nonurbanized area, as defined by the 1990 decennial census, that is located in a metropolitan county that meets three of the five criteria set forth in subsection (14) of this section.
     (14) For the purposes of designating rural natural resources impact areas, the following criteria shall be considered:
     (a) A lumber and wood products employment location quotient at or above the state average;
     (b) A commercial salmon fishing employment location quotient at or above the state average;
     (c) Projected or actual direct lumber and wood products job losses of one hundred positions or more;
     (d) Projected or actual direct commercial salmon fishing job losses of one hundred positions or more; and
     (e) An unemployment rate twenty percent or more above the state average. The counties that meet these criteria shall be determined by the employment security department for the most recent year for which data is available. For the purposes of administration of programs under this chapter, the United States post office five-digit zip code delivery areas will be used to determine residence status for eligibility purposes. For the purpose of this definition, a zip code delivery area of which any part is ten miles or more from an urbanized area is considered nonurbanized. A zip code totally surrounded by zip codes qualifying as nonurbanized under this definition is also considered nonurbanized. The office of financial management shall make available a zip code listing of the areas to all agencies and organizations providing services under this chapter.

Sec. 2   RCW 43.168.020 and 2005 c 136 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.
     (1) "Department" means the department of community, trade, and economic development.
     (2) "Director" means the director of community, trade, and economic development.
     (3) "Distressed area" means: (a) A rural county; (b) a county which has an unemployment rate which is twenty percent above the state average for the immediately previous three years; (c) a county that has a median household income that is less than seventy-five percent of the state median household income for the previous three years; (d) a metropolitan statistical area, as defined by the office of federal statistical policy and standards, United States department of commerce, in which the average level of unemployment for the calendar year immediately preceding the year in which an application is filed under this chapter exceeds the average state unemployment for such calendar year by twenty percent; or (e) an area within a county, which area: (i) Is composed of contiguous census tracts; (ii) has a minimum population of five thousand persons; (iii) has at least seventy percent of its families and unrelated individuals with incomes below eighty percent of the county's median income for families and unrelated individuals; and (iv) has an unemployment rate which is at least forty percent higher than the county's unemployment rate. For purposes of this definition, "families and unrelated individuals" has the same meaning that is ascribed to that term by the federal department of housing and urban development in its regulations authorizing action grants for economic development and neighborhood revitalization projects.
     (4) "Fund" means the rural Washington loan fund.
     (5) "Local development organization" means a nonprofit organization which is organized to operate within an area, demonstrates a commitment to a long-standing effort for an economic development program, and makes a demonstrable effort to assist in the employment of unemployed or underemployed residents in an area.
     (6) "Project" means the establishment of a new or expanded business in an area which when completed will provide employment opportunities. "Project" also means the retention of an existing business in an area which when completed will provide employment opportunities.
     (7) "Rural county" ((means a county with a population density of fewer that one hundred persons per square mile as determined by the office of financial management)) has the same meaning as provided in RCW 82.14.370.

Sec. 3   RCW 43.330.086 and 2007 c 249 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
     To the extent that funds are specifically appropriated therefor, contracts with associate development organizations for the provision of services under RCW 43.330.080(1) shall be awarded according to the following annual schedule:
     (1) For associate development associations serving urban counties, which are counties other than rural counties as defined in RCW ((43.160.020)) 82.14.370, a locally matched allocation of up to ninety cents per capita, totaling no more than three hundred thousand dollars per organization; and
     (2) For associate development associations in rural counties, as defined in RCW ((43.160.020)) 82.14.370, a per county base allocation of up to forty thousand dollars and a locally matched allocation of up to ninety cents per capita.

Sec. 4   RCW 82.16.0491 and 2004 c 238 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The following definitions apply to this section:
     (a) "Qualifying project" means a project designed to achieve job creation or business retention, to add or upgrade nonelectrical infrastructure, to add or upgrade health and safety facilities, to accomplish energy and water use efficiency improvements, including renewable energy development, or to add or upgrade emergency services in any designated qualifying rural area.
     (b) "Qualifying rural area" means:
     (i) A rural county((, which on the date that a contribution is made to an electric utility rural economic development revolving fund is a county with a population density of less than one hundred persons per square mile as determined by the office of financial management)) as defined in RCW 82.14.370; or
     (ii) Any geographic area in the state that receives electricity from a light and power business with twelve thousand or fewer customers.
     (c) "Electric utility rural economic development revolving fund" means a fund devoted exclusively to funding qualifying projects in qualifying rural areas.
     (d) "Local board" is (i) a board of directors with at least, but not limited to, three members representing local businesses and community groups who have been appointed by the sponsoring electric utility to oversee and direct the activities of the electric utility rural economic development revolving fund; or (ii) a board of directors of an existing associate development organization serving the qualifying rural area who have been designated by the sponsoring electrical utility to oversee and direct the activities of the electric utility rural economic development revolving fund.
     (2) A light and power business shall be allowed a credit against taxes due under this chapter in an amount equal to fifty percent of contributions made in any fiscal year directly to an electric utility rural economic development revolving fund. The credit shall be taken in a form and manner as required by the department. The credit under this section shall not exceed twenty-five thousand dollars per fiscal year per light and power business. The credit may not exceed the tax that would otherwise be due under this chapter. Refunds shall not be granted in the place of credits. Expenditures not used to earn a credit in one fiscal year may not be used to earn a credit in subsequent years, except that this limitation does not apply to expenditures made between January 1, 2004, and March 31, 2004, which expenditures may be used to earn a credit through December 30, 2004.
     (3) The right to earn tax credits under this section expires June 30, 2011.
     (4) To qualify for the credit in subsection (2) of this section, the light and power business shall establish, or have a local board establish with the business's contribution, an electric utility rural economic development revolving fund which is governed by a local board whose members shall reside or work in the qualifying rural area served by the light and power business. Expenditures from the electric utility rural economic development revolving fund shall be made solely on qualifying projects, and the local board shall have authority to determine all criteria and conditions for the expenditure of funds from the electric utility rural economic development revolving fund, and for the terms and conditions of repayment.
     (5) Any funds repaid to the electric utility rural economic development revolving fund by recipients shall be made available for additional qualifying projects.
     (6) If at any time the electric utility rural economic development revolving fund is dissolved, any moneys claimed as a tax credit under this section shall either be granted to a qualifying project or refunded to the state within two years of termination.
     (7) The total amount of credits that may be used in any fiscal year shall not exceed three hundred fifty thousand dollars in any fiscal year. The department shall allow the use of earned credits on a first-come, first-served basis. Unused earned credits may be carried over to subsequent years.
     (8) The following provisions apply to expenditures under subsection (2) of this section made between January 1, 2004, and March 31, 2004:
     (a) Credits earned from such expenditures are not considered in computing the statewide limitation set forth in subsection (7) of this section for the period July 1, 2004, through December 31, 2004; and
     (b) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005, the credit allowed under this section for light and power businesses making expenditures is limited to thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   If specific funding for the purposes of this act, referencing this act by bill or chapter number, is not provided by June 30, 2008, in the omnibus appropriations act, this act is null and void.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   This act takes effect July 1, 2009.