Gov. Christine Gregoire signed Senate Bill 6421 Thursday afternoon, a measure that will speed up the process of returning retainage to our state’s contractors and subcontractors more quickly to avoid potentially negative effects on a contractor’s bonding capacity and financial viability. Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, sponsored the bill, which received unanimous support from the Washington State Senate and House of Representatives.

“I’m very pleased the measure had so much support,” King said after the bill-signing. “The tough economy we find ourselves in hasn’t shown many signs of improvement, and this will help our state’s contractors by allowing them to have money returned to them faster so they can in turn reinvest it in their businesses.”

King explained that “retainage” is a percentage of cost on a prevailing-wage contract job that is held by the government until the job is completed and all contractors and subcontractors have submitted the appropriate paperwork. The new law created by SB 6421 will allow a contractor or a subcontractor to file an affidavit of wages paid on behalf of another subcontractor if the subcontractor has ceased operations or failed to file an affidavit itself.

“It’s a simple change to the state law,” King said, “but it will have a dramatic impact on these businesses. We need to make every opportunity available for our state’s small businesses to succeed and smoothing out the retainage return process is one way to help make that happen.”

The new law will take effect June 7.