Bill Text: TX SB861 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to a zero-based budget legislative appropriations request process.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-03-01 - Referred to Finance [SB861 Detail]

Download: Texas-2019-SB861-Introduced.html

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86R4377 SRA-D
By: Paxton S.B. No. 861

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a zero-based budget legislative appropriations request
process.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 322, Government Code, is amended by
adding Section 322.0071 to read as follows:
Sec. 322.0071. REPORT ON ZERO-BASED BUDGET LEGISLATIVE
APPROPRIATIONS REQUESTS. (a) In each even-numbered year, the
board shall prepare a report that includes each zero-based budget
legislative appropriations request form submitted to the board in
that year by a state agency, institution, or other entity required
to submit the form under Section 401.0422. The report must include
the information described by Sections 401.0422(d)(1) and (2) for
each agency, institution, or entity.
(b) Not later than December 1 of each even-numbered year,
the board shall:
(1) deliver the report required under Subsection (a)
to the governor, the lieutenant governor, and each member of the
legislature; and
(2) publish the report on the board's Internet website
in the manner provided by Section 322.0081.
SECTION 2. Section 322.008, Government Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (b-1) to read as follows:
(b-1) The general appropriations bill may include as an
informational item information from a zero-based budget
legislative appropriations request form submitted to the board by a
state agency, institution, or other entity as required under
Section 401.0422.
SECTION 3. Section 401.042, Government Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (a-1) to read as follows:
(a-1) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), the governor shall
design and prepare a zero-based budget legislative appropriations
request form on which a state agency, institution, or other entity
required to submit a zero-based budget legislative appropriations
request under Section 401.0422 must prepare its request. The form
must be designed to allow the agency, institution, or entity to
provide the information required under Section 401.0421.
SECTION 4. Subchapter C, Chapter 401, Government Code, is
amended by adding Sections 401.0421 and 401.0422 to read as
follows:
Sec. 401.0421. CONTENT AND ORGANIZATION OF ZERO-BASED
BUDGET LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS REQUEST FORM. (a) A state
agency, institution, or other entity submitting legislative
appropriation requests on the zero-based budget legislative
appropriations request form as required by Section 401.042(b) must:
(1) include on the form a citation to:
(A) the agency's, institution's, or entity's
authority under the Texas Constitution to operate, if applicable;
and
(B) the law specifying the agency's,
institution's, or entity's primary purpose or mission; and
(2) organize the agency's, institution's, or entity's
requests for legislative appropriations by program or activity.
(b) For each specific program or activity administered by a
state agency, institution, or other entity for which the agency,
institution, or entity is making a legislative appropriation
request on the zero-based budget legislative appropriations
request form, the agency, institution, or entity must include:
(1) a line item that describes the program or activity
and cites the law that authorizes or requires the program or
activity;
(2) the appropriation made for the program or activity
for the state fiscal biennium preceding the state fiscal biennium
for which the requested appropriation is made;
(3) the amount of the requested appropriation with a
succinct notation justifying the amount;
(4) a statement that specifies whether the requested
appropriation for the program or activity is from nondedicated
money in the general revenue fund, dedicated money in the general
revenue fund, federal money, or another source; and
(5) the number of full-time equivalent employees
authorized for the program or activity for the state fiscal
biennium preceding the state fiscal biennium for which the
requested appropriation is made and the number of full-time
equivalent employees for the biennium that would be authorized
under the requested appropriation.
Sec. 401.0422. ZERO-BASED BUDGET LEGISLATIVE
APPROPRIATIONS REQUEST PROCESS. (a) The governor shall:
(1) identify each state agency, institution, or other
entity that makes legislative appropriations requests;
(2) develop a schedule under which each identified
agency, institution, or other entity is required to use the
zero-based budget legislative appropriations request process
described by this section for one state fiscal biennium out of each
of the four consecutive state fiscal bienniums, subject to
Subsection (c); and
(3) periodically revise the schedule required by
Subdivision (2) to account for the creation or abolition of state
agencies, institutions, and other entities.
(b) Not later than October 1 of each odd-numbered year, the
governor shall notify in writing:
(1) each state agency, institution, or other entity
that is, according to the schedule developed under Subsection (a),
required to use a zero-based budget legislative appropriations
request process for the legislative appropriations request for the
succeeding state fiscal biennium of that requirement; and
(2) the Legislative Budget Board of all state
agencies, institutions, and other entities that, according to the
schedule developed under Subsection (a), are required to use the
zero-based budget legislative appropriations request process for
the legislative appropriations request for the succeeding state
fiscal biennium.
(c) The governor may require a state agency, institution, or
other entity to use a zero-based budget legislative appropriations
request process for a state fiscal biennium for which a budget
deficit is projected regardless of whether the agency, institution,
or entity is required to use that process in accordance with the
schedule developed under Subsection (a). If the governor requires
a zero-based budget legislative appropriations request process
under this subsection, the governor shall notify each state agency,
institution, or entity in writing of the requirement not later than
March 1 of the year preceding the state fiscal biennium for which
the legislative appropriations requests will be made.
(d) A state agency, institution, or other entity required to
use a zero-based budget legislative appropriations request process
under Subsection (a) or (c) shall prepare its legislative
appropriations request in the manner and with the content required
by Section 401.0421 and submit the request to the governor and the
Legislative Budget Board. The agency, institution, or entity shall
also include in the request:
(1) for each line item:
(A) a statement of the purpose of the program or
activity represented by the line item;
(B) a statement of the goals of the administering
organizational unit of the agency, institution, or entity with
respect to the program or activity represented by the line item;
(C) an estimate of the cost of any adverse
effects that reasonably may be anticipated to result if the program
or activity represented by the line item were discontinued and a
description of the methods by which the cost was estimated;
(D) an itemized account of expenditures required
to maintain the minimum level of service required by law to be
provided through the program or activity represented by the line
item and a succinct statement of the quantity and quality of
services provided at that minimum level; and
(E) an itemized account of expenditures required
to maintain the current level of service provided through the
program or activity represented by the line item and a succinct
statement of the quantity and quality of services provided at the
current level; and
(2) a ranking of the programs and activities
represented by the line items representing programs and activities
administered by the state agency, institution, or entity that
reflects the relative importance of each program and activity to
the overall goals and purposes of the agency, institution, or
entity, assuming the current level of service provided through the
program or activity.
SECTION 5. Section 552.106, Government Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
(c) A draft or working paper involved in the preparation of
a zero-based budget legislative appropriations request under
Section 401.0422 is exempted from the requirements of Section
552.021.
SECTION 6. (a) Not later than March 1, 2020, the governor
shall develop the initial schedule required by Section 401.0422(a),
Government Code, as added by this Act, and provide the initial
notice required by Section 401.0422(b), Government Code, as added
by this Act.
(b) Section 401.0421, Government Code, as added by this Act,
and the zero-based budget legislative appropriations request
process required by Section 401.0422, Government Code, as added by
this Act, apply beginning with legislative appropriations requests
made for the 2022-2023 state fiscal biennium.
SECTION 7. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.