This bill amends existing law (RCW 43.330.082 and 43.330.086) to add reporting, performance measurement, data collection, contracting, and funding provisions for contracting associate development organizations. It requires those organizations to provide the department with specified performance measures and a summary of best practices, to submit annual reports that include employment and economic information from the Employment Security Department, net change from the prior year, other community information, amounts of funds received through the contract and from all sources, and the organization's impact on employment across funding sources. Annual reports may also include impacts on wages, exports, tax revenue, small business creation, foreign direct investment, business relocations, expansions, terminations, and capital investment. Report data must be entered into a common web-based business information system managed by the department. The bill establishes procedural requirements for agreeing on specific measures, data standards, and definitions every two years, setting target levels for performance measures and comparing thresholds to actual performance annually. Organizations that miss agreed targets on more than half of measures must create remediation plans with revised performance thresholds showing progress. If organizations fail to achieve the required progress under the remediation requirement, their contracts and state funding must be terminated for one year; during that year the organization must review alternative delivery strategies, and after the year the department may choose to contract with the organization or its successor. The department must submit a final report to the legislature by December 31 of each even-numbered year on contract performance results. If funds are specifically appropriated, the bill sets how contracts are to be awarded: for associate development organizations serving urban counties (counties other than rural counties as defined in RCW 82.14.370) a locally matched allocation up to $0.90 per capita capped at $300,000 per organization; for associate development organizations in rural counties a per-county base allocation up to $40,000 plus a locally matched allocation up to $0.90 per capita. Local match may be cash or in-kind or both, but in-kind match is limited to 25 percent of the local match. The text provided does not identify the specific department that will manage contracting and the web-based system, does not include the contents of RCW 43.330.080(1)(b)(i) or a statutory definition of "associate development organizations," gives no details on the web-based system fields or access, and omits timing and procedural specifics for developing remediation plans and carrying out the one-year termination.

If this becomes law, the groups the state contracts with to promote local economic development will have to collect and report detailed performance data each year, including employment and economic numbers from the Employment Security Department, year‑to‑year changes, how much money they received (from the contract and all sources), and their impact on employment; those reports must be entered into a department‑managed web‑based business information system and will be tied to specific performance targets set every two years and reviewed annually. Meeting these requirements will increase reporting work and public accountability for associate development organizations, and if an organization misses more than half of its agreed measures it must submit a remediation plan and risks losing its state contract and funding for one year if it does not show the required progress. The most affected parties are associate development organizations (urban and rural), the contracting department that will manage reporting and contract enforcement, the Employment Security Department (which must supply data), and the Legislature (which receives a biennial performance report). Important details are missing from the bill text provided here — the specific department name, the statutory definition of associate development organizations, what exact services are covered, the web system’s details, precise timelines and procedures for remediation and termination, and whether funding will actually be appropriated — so the real funding and operational impact will depend on those unresolved items.