HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 2444

BYRepresentatives Kirby, Nealey, Haugen, Smith, Ballard, Rayburn and Jones

Authorizing irrigation districts to establish consolidated local improvement districts.

House Committe on Local Government

Majority Report:  Do pass.  (14)

      Signed by Representatives Haugen, Chair; Cooper, Vice Chair; Ferguson, Ranking Republican Member; Kirby, Horn, Nealey, Nelson, Nutley, Phillips, Raiter, Rayburn, Wolfe, Wood and Zellinsky.

House Staff:Steve Lundin (786-7127)

AS PASSED HOUSE FEBRUARY 6, 1990

BACKGROUND:

Local improvement districts (LID's) are financing devices that many units of local government have been authorized to establish for financing the costs of public improvements.

The use of a local improvement district involves drawing boundaries around a proposed public improvement within which property is located that benefits (i.e., will have its market value increased) from the public improvement, and imposing special assessments on that benefited property to finance the public improvement.  Property owners are given an opportunity to pay the special assessments in one lump sum.  Local improvement district bonds, payable from the special assessments that are not paid in one lump sum, are issued to obtain the money that was not paid in one lump sum. Property owners who have not made the single lump sum payment are obligated to make periodic payments of principal and interest to redeem the local improvement district bonds.

Irrigation districts are authorized to create local improvement districts.  Irrigation district laws relating to local improvement districts provide that a local improvement district may finance the costs of an improvement, but do not appear to allow more than one improvement to be financed by a single local improvement district.

Cities and towns are authorized to create consolidated local improvement districts, for the purpose of issuing local improvement district bonds only, to finance public improvements that need not be adjoining, vicinal, neighboring.

SUMMARY:

Irrigation districts are authorized to create consolidated local improvement districts, for the purpose of issuing local improvement district bonds only, to finance improvements that need not be adjoining, vicinal, or neighboring.

Fiscal Note:      Not Requested.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Gary Weatherly, Washington State Water Resources Association.

House Committee - Testified Against:      No one.

House Committee - Testimony For:    This will reduce the costs of financing the borrowing of money, i.e., issuing LID bonds, by permitting one bond issue rather than several separate bond issues.  The basic costs of issuing bonds will be paid only once.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      None.