LEGISLATIVE STEERING COMMITTEE AGENDA - Wacounties.org

POLICY FACT SHEET
Policy Issue: Health District Banking Issues Created By RCW 70.46.080
Overview:
Under RCW 70.46.080, a local public health district in Washington State does not have express authority to maintain its own
bank account, although some other special purpose districts are allowed to do this under State law. For example, Fire Districts
(RCW 52.16.050) and Library Districts (RCW 27.12.240) can maintain their own bank accounts separate from county
government. By granting that authority to some special-purpose districts, but not to health districts, the Legislature has implicitly
denied the authority to health districts.
Resulting Inefficiencies
For health districts, this results in duplication of effort and time constraints that reduce financial efficiency and effectiveness.
These inefficiencies include:
• Posting transactions in two separate accounting systems (County and the health district) causing duplicate reconciling.
• Time constraints on issuing health district payroll and accounts payable warrants.
• Inability to efficiently invest excess health district funds due to the unavoidable lag time in the County posting cash
receipt transactions.
• Delays in collecting non-sufficient fund checks due to the lag time in notification.
• In some cases, the inability to implement a “job costing” system to track and bill contracts and grants because payroll
and accounts payable details are recorded in the County’s accounting system --- not the district’s --- necessitating
manual data entry.
Health districts receive significant funding through contracts and grants and need sophisticated tracking, billing and reporting
capabilities without duplicating entries into two accounting systems. Districts may already own the necessary technology to do
this work, but are significantly hampered in using it to its full capacity without the ability to maintain a checking account.
Solution:
Under current law, a health district lacks authority to act as its own fiscal agent. By granting authority to some special-purpose
districts, but not to health districts, the Legislature has impliedly denied the authority to health districts. The Legislature needs to
amend RCW 70.46.080 to authorize, but not mandate, health districts to act as their own fiscal agent and thereby increase
efficiency in a time of scarce resources. The RCW amendment could also require that this authority be granted only with the
approval of the district’s Public Health Board and County government.
206 Tenth Avenue SE Olympia, WA 98501 | Tel: 360.753.1886 Fax: 360.753.2842 | www.wsalpho.org
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