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.