HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 1016

BYRepresentatives Dellwo and Haugen

Authorizing lien and low-income fee reduction for county fees for water withdrawal and sewage disposal.

House Committe on Local Government

Majority Report:  Do pass.  (13)

      Signed by Representatives Haugen, Chair; Cooper, Vice Chair; Beck, Bumgarner, Ferguson, Hine, Madsen, Nealey, Nelson, Nutley, Rayburn, L. Smith and Zellinsky.

House Staff:Steve Lundin (786-7127)

AS PASSED HOUSE MARCH 18, 1987

BACKGROUND:

Legislation was enacted in 1985 allowing counties to create aquifer protection districts to finance the protection, preservation, and rehabilitation of subterranean water.  An aquifer protection district is created by a vote of the registered voters residing within its proposed boundaries.  Fees on the withdrawal of subterranean water, and/or on-site sewage disposal, are authorized if voters approve a ballot proposition proposing the imposition of the fees that specifies the maximum levels of the fees and states the purposes for which they are imposed.

SUMMARY:

A county legislative authority may reduce the level of fees imposed in an aquifer protection district on the residential property of a class or classes of low income persons.  The county shall possess a lien for any delinquent fees imposed in an aquifer protection district.  These liens are foreclosed in the manner that liens for delinquent water or sewer service charges are foreclosed by the county.

EFFECT OF SENATE AMENDMENT(S):  The procedure to foreclose one of these liens is altered so that the lien would not attach to the property for which the charges are delinquent until 18 months after the first billing that was not paid, and at least three billing notices and a letter explaining the lien have been mailed to the property owner.

Fiscal Note:      Not Requested.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Commissioner John McBride, Spokane County; and Ed Thorpe, Coalition for Clean Water.

House Committee - Testified Against:      None Presented.

House Committee - Testimony For:    This is a major tool to help finance the needed sewers for Spokane Valley.  Up to 20 percent of the people in Spokane are delinquent on their fees.  This will encourage them to pay.  Low income persons will be given lower fees to lessen the impact.  In Spokane, the charges approved by a 75 percent vote of the people are either $15 per year or $30 per year.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      None Presented.

VOTE ON FINAL PASSAGE:

      Yeas 59; Nays 36; Absent 3

Voting Nay: Representatives Allen, Amondson, Ballard, Barnes, Beck, Betrozoff, Bristow, Brooks, Brough, Bumgarner, Chandler, Doty, Ferguson, Fuhrman, Hankins, Holland, Lewis, May, McLean, Miller, Moyer, Nealey, Padden, Patrick, Prince, Sanders, Schoon, Silver, C. Smith, D. Sommers, Taylor, Walker, B. Williams, J. Williams, S. Wilson and Winsley

Absent:     Representatives Grimm, Locke and Vekich