This bill amends existing hazardous substance tax law (RCW 82.21.020 and 82.21.030), adds a new state aircraft noise and air quality mitigation account in chapter 53.20 RCW, and adds a reporting requirement in chapter 82.21 RCW. It directs that, beginning with taxes collected on or after October 1, 2026, the portion of the tax on aviation fuel equal to the volumetric tax rate in excess of $1.48 per barrel multiplied by the number of barrels (the “aircraft noise and air quality mitigation allocation”) be deposited into the new account. The Department of Commerce may use account funds to establish and administer a grant program for mitigation strategies addressing aviation-related air quality and noise impacts in “aviation-impacted communities” (defined here as communities within 10 miles of a runway operated by a port district under RCW 53.54.010). The bill also requires taxpayers subject to the aviation fuel possession tax to report the number of barrels and the tax due on a separate reporting line as prescribed by “the department,” and directs that a department publish a list of petroleum products that are not easily measured per barrel (those products will be taxed under the percentage wholesale-value rate rather than the volumetric rate). It preserves and adjusts other statutory allocations of petroleum product tax receipts among model toxics control accounts and the motor vehicle fund (including a $50,000,000 per biennium deposit to the motor vehicle fund until a specified condition is met), and it retains rulemaking limits and tax-effective date rules for changes to the hazardous substance definition by the director of ecology. This is a statutory change that creates a new dedicated account and grant program, changes how a portion of the hazardous substance tax on aviation fuel is allocated, and adds reporting and administrative procedures. The extracted text repeatedly refers to “the department” without identifying which state agency is intended in each instance, the statutory definition of “aircraft fuel” from RCW 82.42.010 is not included here, and the precise current volumetric tax rate computations beyond the 2019 baseline are not fully shown in the provided material.

If enacted, a new dedicated fund will start receiving a portion of the hazardous-substance tax on aviation fuel beginning October 1, 2026, and that money will be used by the Department of Commerce to run a grant program helping communities within about 10 miles of port-run airport runways deal with aviation noise and air quality problems. Communities near airports would likely gain a new source of mitigation money, while the Department of Commerce gains a new ongoing funding stream and responsibility to award and manage those grants. Fuel holders and distributors who pay the hazardous-substance tax on aviation fuel will have to report barrels and the tax on a separate line as prescribed by the department, which adds reporting work and could change how much of their per-barrel tax is earmarked for mitigation (the allocation is the tax amount above $1.48 per barrel). Other existing recipients—model toxics control accounts and a motor vehicle fund that gets $50 million per biennium for stormwater—continue to receive portions of the tax. The bill leaves some practical details unclear, including which specific agency must publish the list of products not easily measured by the barrel and the exact post-2019 per-barrel rate calculations, so the final dollar effects on taxpayers and grant funding levels are not fully specified.