Substitute House Bill 2430 amends existing Washington statutes governing the crime victim penalty assessment and related sentencing and legal financial obligation (LFO) procedures. It sets the superior court crime victim penalty assessment at $1,000 for any case with one or more felony or gross misdemeanor convictions and $500 for cases with only misdemeanor convictions, authorizes courts to impose an additional surcharge to fund victim support and repair of harm, and permits prosecutors to move for a finding that a defendant has “substantial financial resources” (defined in the text as household income exceeding 200% of the area median income) so the court may impose an additional surcharge up to $50,000 that should be proportionate to the offense and harm. The bill also allows motions to waive assessments imposed before July 1, 2023 for persons who were juveniles at the time or who are indigent, requires deduction of applicable assessments from forfeited superior court bail, excludes most motor vehicle Title 46 crimes except specified sections, and directs county and city collection, deposit, and transmission rules to fund county programs that must be approved by a specified “department” to be treated as comprehensive victim/witness programs. The bill also modifies sentencing, supervision, and LFO enforcement procedures across multiple statutes. Courts must impose the crime victim assessment at sentencing unless the defendant demonstrates indigency; payment of the assessment and any surcharge can be a condition of suspended sentence. The text establishes enforcement processes for nonfinancial sentence violations and for nonpayment: the state bears the burden to prove noncompliance by a preponderance of the evidence and the court must hold a hearing to find willfulness before sanctioning nonpayment. If nonpayment is nonwillful or the offender is indigent, the court may modify payment terms, reduce or waive nonrestitution LFOs, or convert nonrestitution LFOs to community restitution hours at not less than the state minimum wage if a community restitution program exists. The bill prescribes priorities for distribution of payments, roles for the department and county clerks in setting and modifying monthly payment amounts and collecting LFOs (including daily remittance and periodic billing), authorizes wage assignments, credits time served awaiting hearings, limits confinement for violations (for example, up to 60 days per nonfinancial violation and specific limits for contempt for nonpayment), and preserves an exception that restitution owed to the Department of Labor and Industries under chapter 7.68 RCW may not be relieved under the court’s general restitution-relief provision. The extracted text is incomplete in places and leaves open some details: the amendment to RCW 9.94A.6333 is cut off, the specific identity of “the department” responsible for approving comprehensive programs is not named in these excerpts, and some cross-referenced definitions (e.g., the full statutory text defining indigency at RCW 10.01.160(3) and other referenced subsections and amendments to additional RCWs listed in the header) are not included here.

If enacted, people convicted in superior court will face a required crime victim penalty assessment of $1,000 for any felony or gross misdemeanor conviction and $500 for misdemeanors, and courts must impose it unless the defendant is found indigent. Prosecutors can ask the court to show the defendant has “substantial financial resources” (household income over 200% of area median income), which can trigger an additional surcharge up to $50,000 proportionate to the offense; most motor vehicle offenses are excluded. Courts generally cannot reduce, waive, or convert these victim assessments except as the bill allows, though indigent defendants and juveniles with assessments imposed before July 1, 2023 may seek waivers. Nonpayment can lead to collection tools like wage assignments, payroll deductions, civil enforcement, or, if willful after a hearing, contempt sanctions, while nonrestitution LFOs may be modified, waived, or converted to community restitution hours at no less than state minimum wage when nonwillful or the defendant is indigent. Counties, county clerks/treasurers, and county prosecuting attorneys bear the biggest operational and fiscal changes: they must collect and deposit 100% of case-level receipts into a fund reserved for approved “comprehensive” victim and witness programs, retain funds until a department (not specified in the facts) approves a program, and obtain that approval within one year or else remit the money to the state general fund monthly. That creates new administrative work and a timing risk that locally raised funds could be lost if approval is not secured, while approved victim/witness programs would gain a dedicated revenue source; courts, the Department of Corrections and the administrative office of the courts will also take on clearer duties for setting payment amounts, reporting, and coordinating collections. The identity of the approving department and some amendments are not specified in the extracted facts, leaving some implementation details uncertain.