A measure to grant tax relief for cleanup at the Hanford nuclear reservation will be back in front of state legislators in the upcoming session.

But this time the bill will be backed by the Washington Department of Revenue as the state administration sponsors the bill.

If the bill is not approved, an additional $1.1 million a year would be taken from Hanford, according to a state analysis.

"Do you want the Department of Energy to take money away from cleanup and put it in state coffers?" is the question Sen. Jerome Delvin is asking state leaders.

"If that's not state policy, we should do something," he said.

The bill would make clear that a lower business and occupation tax rate charged to Hanford contractors directly involved in cleanup activities also extends to a broader array of companies whose work supports cleanup. Although taxes are paid by Hanford contractors, DOE reimburses the expense from federal cleanup dollars.

Taxes became an issue after a state Department of Revenue audit of Lockheed Martin concluded the Hanford subcontractor was not doing cleanup work and should be paying a higher tax rate. Lockheed Martin recently negotiated a settlement with the state for the years from 1998 to 2002 that will result in $7.5 million being retained by DOE for cleanup work, according to the Tri-City Development Council.

Hanford contractors paid the lower rate when plutonium was being produced at the site for the nation's nuclear weapons program during the Cold War. After production stopped, the Legislature acted in 1995 to make sure cleanup work continued to receive the same tax break.

That law specifies that companies doing cleanup work at Hanford pay a rate of 0.471 percent of gross income rather than 1.5 percent.

The bill to be introduced in the upcoming session makes clear that the lower tax rate extends to companies supporting the performance of cleanup, such as information technology and computer support services; infrastructure services; and security, safety and health services.

However, it would exclude services that would routinely be offered to any business from the lower tax rate. For instance, office janitorial services would not get the tax break, but the specialized cleaning of equipment exposed to radioactive waste would qualify.

Similar legislation was introduced last year in the state House and Senate, but did not advance to a vote.

Since then Department of Revenue officials have toured Hanford to learn more about operations, including how information systems support cleanup. They saw wireless technology used to monitor millions of gallons of radioactive waste held in underground tanks and communications systems used by the emergency operation center.

After the October visit, TRIDEC approved a resolution in support of a bill that would extend the lower tax rate to all DOE contractors performing work on Hanford cleanup "thereby making maximum use of federally funded Hanford cleanup dollars."