This bill creates a new state treasury account called the business and professions account and requires that receipts from specified business and professional licenses, registrations, certifications, renewals, examinations, and civil penalties collected by the Department of Licensing be deposited into that account. It amends RCW 43.24.150 to list the covered chapters (including architects, auctioneers, cosmetologists and barbers, embalmers and funeral directors, landscape architects, appraisers, court reporters, private investigators, security guards, bail bond agents, geologists, home inspectors, appraisal management companies, collection agencies, employment agencies, camping resorts, sellers of travel, notaries public, timeshares, boxing/martial arts/wrestling, funeral and cemetery board, body art/tattooing, whitewater outfitters, commercial telephone solicitation, and scrap metal businesses). Moneys in the account may be spent only after appropriation and only for expenses incurred in carrying out those listed licensing activities, and any residual balance must be accumulated rather than reverting to the general fund. The director must prepare a biennial budget request based on anticipated costs and estimated fee income. The act takes effect January 1, 2026. The bill repeals six existing RCW sections that established separate license/account provisions (RCW 18.08.240; 18.39.810; 18.96.210; 18.140.260; 18.220.120; and 18.310.160) and directs that residual balances in those specified accounts as of December 31, 2025 be transferred into the new business and professions account after the Office of Financial Management notifies the State Treasurer that the fiscal year 2025 financial statement is complete, with the transfer to occur no later than February 28, 2026. Affected entities named in the bill include the Department of Licensing, the Office of Financial Management, the State Treasurer, and licensees and programs under the listed chapters. Legally, the bill creates a new treasury account and reallocates fee receipts into it, repeals certain existing account statutes, establishes procedural deadlines for residual transfers and for the department’s biennial budget submissions, and limits spending from the account to appropriated uses related to the listed licensing activities. The text references an exception in RCW 18.08.510 and contains a parenthetical about the 2013–2015 biennium; those specifics are not explained in the extracted material, and additional procedural details about fee administration are not included here.

If enacted, the bill would centralize fee and penalty revenues from many professional and business licensing programs into a single “business and professions” treasury account and require the Department of Licensing to plan biennial budgets that reflect expected fee income. That change will make those program funds more protected from reverting to the general fund and more clearly tied to the listed licensing activities, but money still cannot be spent without legislative appropriation, so programs may face timing delays between when fees are collected and when they can be used. The Department of Licensing, the State Treasurer, and OFM will bear the main administrative burden of moving balances and managing the new account, and the listed licensees will see their fees flow into this consolidated account rather than multiple smaller accounts that are being repealed; this could stabilize long‑term funding for those licensing activities but will require transition work and clearer budgeting. The text leaves unclear one exception referenced (RCW 18.08.510) and some procedural details for the transfers, so exact impacts on particular programs or any short-term cash timing effects are uncertain.