Tax on hazardous substances gets an amendment makeover

The Clean Water Act of 2010, also known as House Bill 3181, emerged from the House Finance Committee yesterday in an amended form. Here’s a basic summary of what has changed in the bill:

Before: Raises the state Hazardous Substance Tax from 0.7% to 2%.
Now: Raises the state Hazardous Substance Tax by 0.1% per year up to a total of 0.4% increase.

Before: No export tax credit for oil refineries who sell their product out-of-state.
Now: Export tax credit has been included so that Tesoro, a Washington state refinery that does not own its oil fields (unlike other oil refineries in the state), will not be at a disadvantage when selling its product to states like Oregon.

Before: $225 million per year, with a significant portion going to backfill the state’s General Fund at first, decreasing each year until the majority of the funds go to stormwater cleanup within 5 years.
Now: No funding to General Fund; $150 million to environmental cleanup over 5 years.

This has been one of the more contentious bills of the 2010 session. At a packed public hearing on the proposal in the House Capital Budget committee, refinery workers testified that increasing the tax could cost them their jobs and hurt communities where refineries are located. On the other hand, local governments and environmental groups testified that the bill would create jobs in stormwater infrastructure and help clean up waterways like Puget Sound and the Spokane River.

In passing the amended version of the bill, legislators were attempting to recognize the importance of addressing stormwater cleanup while also being sensitive to the concerns about loss of family-wage refinery jobs. The environmental community hopes legislators will strengthen the proposal as it works its way to a possible floor vote in the House. This will definitely be a bill to watch from now until the end of session.