AN ACT Relating to providing tax relief to entities that deliver behavioral health and mental health services; reenacting and amending RCW 82.04.4277; creating new sections; and providing an expiration date.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) This section is the tax preference performance statement for the tax preference contained in section 2, chapter . . ., Laws of 2019 (section 2 of this act). This performance statement is only intended to be used for subsequent evaluation of the tax preference. It is not intended to create a private right of action by any party or be used to determine eligibility for preferential tax treatment.

(2) The legislature categorizes this tax preference as one intended to induce certain behavior by taxpayers, create certain jobs, and provide tax relief to certain businesses as indicated in RCW 82.32.808(2) (a), (c), and (e).

(3) It is the legislature's specific public policy objective to increase the number of mental health and behavioral health professionals in the workforce. It is the legislature's intent to reduce the amount of tax paid by certain entities for providing behavioral health services and for training new mental health and chemical dependency professionals, in order to increase the amount of government funding available for patient services and supervised training for new mental health and behavioral health professionals.

(4) If a review finds that the number of credentialed and licensed behavioral health professionals has increased, the legislature intends to extend the expiration date of the tax preference.

(5) In order to obtain the data necessary to perform the review in subsection (4) of this section, the joint legislative audit and review committee may refer to data from the department of health, the department of employment security, and the office of financial management.

Sec. 2. RCW 82.04.4277 and 2017 c 323 s 528 and 2017 c 135 s 14 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

(1) A health or social welfare organization may deduct from the measure of tax amounts received as compensation for providing mental health services or chemical dependency services under a government-funded program.

(2) A behavioral health organization may deduct from the measure of tax amounts received from the state of Washington for distribution to a health or social welfare organization that is eligible to deduct the distribution under subsection (1) of this section.

(3) An organization qualifying for a deduction under subsection (1) or (2) of this section, a hospital as defined in RCW 70.41.020, or an establishment as defined in RCW 71.12.455, that provides supervised training necessary for a degree or certificate as a mental health professional or chemical dependency professional may deduct up to ten dollars per training hour per trainee from the measure of tax amounts received from the state of Washington.

(4) A person claiming a deduction under this section must file a complete annual tax performance report with the department under RCW 82.32.534, which must also include the number of trainee hours provided for each type of degree or certification. Trainee hour data is not confidential tax information under RCW 82.32.330 and is subject to disclosure.

(((4)))(5) The definitions in this subsection apply throughout this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(a) "Certificate" means any credential required by the department of health, or other authorizing agency, in order to perform duties as required or to become licensed as a mental health professional or chemical dependency professional.

(b) "Chemical dependency" has the same meaning as provided in RCW 70.96A.020 through March 31, 2018, and the same meaning as provided in RCW 71.05.020 beginning April 1, 2018.

(g) "Mental health services" and "behavioral health organization" have the meanings provided in RCW 71.24.025.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The automatic expiration date provisions of RCW 82.32.805(1)(a) do not apply to this act.