A biennial budget bill document transmitted by the Governor or Governor-elect must include a part that asks the Legislature whether it wishes to continue funding each individual tax expenditure, as defined in section 1664, provided in the statutes. The part must include for each tax expenditure a statutory section reference, a brief description of each tax expenditure and the loss of revenue estimated to be incurred by funding source and fiscal year. This paragraph applies with respect to the preparation of the budget document and biennial budget bills for the 1998-1999 2008-2009 biennium and thereafter.

SUMMARY

This bill implements the statutory recommendations of the Commission to Reform the State Budget Process. The purpose of these changes is to create a budget document that is more useful throughout the budget deliberations of the Legislature and to adjust the statutes to reflect the recommended change in the budgeting methodology.

This bill shifts the starting point for the biennial budget from the traditional current services model to a modified flat- funded model. Instead of building from prior biennium requests increased by an inflation factor, requests for appropriations and allocations start from authorized positions and flat-funded nonpersonal services appropriations and allocations. Increases from those flat-funded amounts would need to be justified and the initiatives presented in the unified budget bill.

This bill eliminates some recently enacted restrictions on departmental budget requests, which are replaced by the flat- funded restrictions. It also provides more flexibility in the Governor's budget document.