Drafter
Clerk 10/27/2016
Title
AN ORDINANCE relating to the disposition of sale proceeds; changing the designation of the distribution of gross sale proceeds; and amending Ordinance 12045, Section 12, as amended, and K.C.C. 4.56.130.
Body
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. In 2001, the King County council adopted Ordinance 14260, which directed that, for transactions with gross sale proceeds of two hundred fifty thousand dollars or greater that are to accrue to the current expense fund, ten percent of the gross sale proceeds are to be deposited into the arts and cultural development fund.
B. The council took this action in recognition of the fact that, beginning in 2002, arts and heritage programs experienced a sharp drop in funding due to a change in state law that reduced support from the lodging tax and the inability of the county's current expense fund to maintain ongoing support for arts and heritage programs.
C. In 2002, the council adopted Ordinance 14482, which transferred King County's arts and heritage programs to a quasi-governmental public development authority known as the King County cultural development authority. The charter of the cultural development authority requires the council to transfer moneys from the arts and cultural development fund, to the cultural development authority.
D. In 2011, the Washington state Legislature authorized and the Governor signed ESSB 5834, which provided an ongoing source of funding for arts and cultural purposes through chapter 67.28 RCW, which will provide dedicated lodging tax revenues for these purposes beginning in 2021.
E. King County's current expense fund has been increasingly unable to meet critical public safety and human services funding needs over the last fifteen years due to state-imposed revenue limitations.
F. Shortfalls in the current expense fund have required the executive and council to make difficult reductions in the face of significant ne...

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