Washington § 40.14.027 - Local government archives and records management services — Judgment debtor surcharge.

State agencies shall collect a surcharge of twenty dollars from the judgment debtor upon the satisfaction of a warrant filed in superior court for unpaid taxes or liabilities. The surcharge is imposed on the judgment debtor in the form of a penalty in addition to the filing fee provided in RCW 36.18.012(10). The surcharge revenue shall be transmitted to the state treasurer for deposit in the public records efficiency, preservation, and access account.

Surcharge revenue deposited in the local government archives account under RCW 40.14.024 shall be expended by the secretary of state exclusively for disaster recovery, essential records protection services, and records management training for local government agencies by the division of archives and records management. The secretary of state shall, with local government representatives, establish a committee to advise the state archivist on the local government archives and records management program.

Effective dates—2011 1st sp.s. c 50: See note following RCW 15.76.115.

Effective date—1996 c 245: See note following RCW 40.14.025.

Findings—1994 c 193: "The legislature finds that: (1) Accountability for and the efficient management of local government records are in the public interest and that compliance with public records management requirements significantly affects the cost of local government administration; (2) the secretary of state is responsible for insuring the preservation of local government archives and may assist local government compliance with public records statutes; (3) as provided in RCW 40.14.025, all archives and records management services provided by the secretary of state are funded exclusively by a schedule of fees and charges established jointly by the secretary of state and the director of financial management; (4) the secretary of state's costs for preserving and providing public access to local government archives and providing records management assistance to local government agencies have been funded by fees paid by state government agencies; (5) local government agencies are responsible for costs associated with managing, protecting, and providing public access to the records in their custody; (6) local government should help fund the secretary of state's local government archives and records management services; (7) the five dollar fee collected by county clerks for processing warrants for unpaid taxes or liabilities filed by the state of Washington is not sufficient to cover processing costs and is far below filing fees commonly charged for similar types of minor civil actions; (8) a surcharge of twenty dollars would bring the filing fee for warrants for the collection of unpaid taxes and liabilities up to a level comparable to other minor civil filings and should be applied to the support of the secretary of state's local government archives and records services without placing an undue burden on local government; and (9) the process of collecting and transmitting surcharge revenue should not have an undue impact on the operations of the state agencies that file warrants for the collection of unpaid taxes and liabilities or the clerks of superior court who process them." [ 1994 c 193 s 1.]

Effective date—1994 c 193: "This act shall take effect July 1, 1994." [ 1994 c 193 s 3.]