state budget reform; omnibus
DPA |
Committee on Appropriations |
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Caucus and COW |
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As Passed the House |
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HB 2251 authorizes the use of a special auditing team, supervised by the Auditor General, for emergency fiscal audits of state agencies, requires state agencies to report additional information on their expenditures of federal funds, requires the inclusion of certain performance measures within the Governor’s budget report and the Sunset Review process, reduces the standard Sunset Review timeframe down from 10 years to 8 years, and includes other miscellaneous budget reform provisions.
· Allows the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC), in consultation with the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC), to order emergency investigations of agencies and programs conducted by a team of auditors from the Auditor General’s Office to be completed within a period of thirty days and subsequently reported to the Committee. The bill further requires an audit of the special audit team every four years, and requires that the results of the audit be provided to the Speaker and the President.
· Requires all state agencies, boards, commissions and departments to report to the JLBC before spending federal monies in excess of the amount spent during the previous fiscal year. The report must indicate whether those new federal monies are derived from an increased and ongoing source of revenue.
· Requires the Governor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) to include the following performance information within the performance measures detailed for each agency in the Executive Budget Recommendation.
1. The number of people served.
2. Data on the population served.
3. Timelines of service.
4. The measure of client satisfaction.
5. Collections and expenditures.
6. Outcome measures.
· Mandates that any legislation creating a new program include a requirement of a report on the same performance measures required of the Executive Budget recommendation, as added by the bill. The legislation must also include a time limit in which to submit that report.
· Requires that by November 1 of each year, the OSPB must submit for JLBC review a report detailing all programs and sub-programs providing health care and social services to children within the following agencies in a manner is consistent with the 1997 Master List of State Government Programs:
1. Department of Economic Services.
2. Department of Health Services.
3. Arizona Department of Education.
4. Department of Juvenile Corrections.
5. Administrative Office of the Courts.
6. Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.
· Requires the JLBC to approve any transfer of spending authority from one agency line-item to another. (Under current law, only certain line-item transfers require JLBC review.)
· Requires budget units subject to a Strategic Program Area Review (SPAR) to meet with the Chairs of both the House and Senate Appropriations committees prior to undergoing a SPAR.
· Reduces the standard Sunset Audit review process timeline from 10 to 8 years.
· Makes technical and conforming changes.
· Makes an unspecified general fund appropriation to the Auditor General’s Office in fiscal year 2001-2002 for the purposes of funding the emergency audit team authorized by the bill. The appropriation is non-lapsing.
HB 2251 was amended in the Appropriations
Committee as follows:
· Removes language requiring that state agencies report to JLBC before expending new or increased federal monies, and instead replaces it with language requiring agencies to report quarterly to JLBC on any federal monies expended by that entity which is 10% or more in excess of any amount that agency spent during the prior fiscal year. In the interim between quarterly reports, the JLBC Staff may request that an agency submit an expenditure plan for any new program using at least $500,000 of federal funds. For the purposes of this bill, “federal monies” do not include entitlement program monies or research grants received by the universities.
· Strikes the list of performance measures that the bill required be included in the Governor’s budget request and within the sunset audit of all new programs and instead replaces it with a new list of performance measures as follows: (1) An input measure, (2), an output measure, (3) a quality measure, (4) an efficiency measure, (5) a client satisfaction measure, and (6) a measure of program outcomes.
· Strikes language requiring that OSPB submit a report to JLBC detailing all health care and social service programs and subprograms within certain state agencies in a manner consistent with the 1997 Master List of State Government Programs and instead requires that the Master List itself, to the extent that it is possible be consistent with the 1997 format. The bill also inserts language stating that for budgeting purposes, the program structure may be modified.
· Removes language which would have required JLBC approval before any transfer between budget line items and instead requires that any such transfers which are not already statutorily subject to such review be reported to JLBC.
· Specifies that the Auditor General special audit teams will be comprised of 4, as opposed to “4 to 6”, team members.
· Clarifies that the audit teams will perform “special audits” as opposed to “investigations”.
· Strikes language requiring that the special audit team itself undergo an audit every 4 years.
· Inserts a $308,000 figure into the blank appropriation amount for the emergency audit team, and clarifies that the monies are for 4 FTEs.
· Delays the effective date of those sections of the bill shortening the standard sunset audit time frame down from 10 years to 8 years.
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45th Legislature
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First Regular Session 3 March 8, 2001
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