Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 645 revises numerous laws relating to state employees, state agency spending, and state government recordkeeping. It authorizes liability insurance for agency board members and executive management staff and provides for additional increments of longevity pay for state employees. The act prohibits an agency from using appropriations to attempt to influence the passage or defeat of legislation. It directs agencies to develop procedures to achieve management-to-staff ratios of 1 to 11. The act abolishes the Project Advisory Committee relating to the implementation of the uniform statewide accounting system. It creates a Human Resource Task Force with duties relating to the coordination of information dissemination and personnel policies, the development of a personnel manual, and the sharing and coordination of human resource training activities.

            The act includes other provisions providing for reports and analyses by the comptroller and Legislative Budget Board on the incidence of certain taxes and tax changes, including their impact on different income classes, and the effect of certain tax exemptions, discounts, and exclusions. Portions of the act take effect June 19, 1997. Those portions include, among other items, the longevity pay and liability insurance changes, the provisions relating to management-to-staff ratios, the prohibition on agency influence of legislation, the creation of the task force, and the provisions relating to tax incidence and other tax reporting and analysis. Various other portions take effect September 1, 1997.