Fire insurance premium tax cities receive withheld distributions June 11

On June 11, the Office of the State Treasurer sent additional distributions to those cities that receive fire insurance premium tax distributions due to pre-LEOFF pension obligations, representing an amount withheld from distributions sent last month.

Prior to last month’s distributions, it was discovered that there was an error in the amount appropriated for the distributions in the recently approved state operating budget. The appropriated amount was less than the amount of actual collections. The Treasurer’s Office withheld the difference between the actual collections and the appropriated amounts on a prorated basis for each city while it worked with the House, Senate, and Office of Finance Management to resolve questions on authority to distribute the funds without requiring the cities to wait for a correction in next year’s supplemental budget. The questions have been resolved, and the agencies have determined that existing legal authority exists to release the withheld funds.

We appreciate the work of the agencies to resolve this issue without having to wait for a corrected appropriation in next year’s supplemental budget process.