Bill Summary

1         

Budget development.  Authorizes the Legislative Commission on Planning and Fiscal Policy to develop budget recommendations.  Requires state agencies to provide information to the Commission upon request, including information on the base budget and changes in the base appropriation. 

2         

Fiscal note procedure.  Provides that the commissioner of finance’s fiscal note procedure must include a system for displaying the date a fiscal note was requested, the requested completion date, and the estimated completion date.

3         

Local impact notes.  Authorizes the chairs or ranking minority members of House or Senate Finance Committees or the House Ways and Means Committee to request a local impact note for a bill.  Under current law, these notes can be requested by the chairs or ranking minority members of the House and Senate tax committees.  Requires the commissioner of finance to provide a copy of the completed note to the chairs and ranking minority members of all committees to which a bill is referred (Under current law, the notes must be provided to the bill authors). 

4         

Budget format.  Requires executive branch budget documents to show actual expenditures and receipts for the three most recent fiscal years (instead of just the most recent year).

5         

Budget documents.  Requires documents that state agency file with the commissioner of finance in October of even-numbered years to include actual spending fro the three most recent fiscal years. 

6         

Cash flow forecast.  Requires that within 30 days after the November budget forecast, the commissioner of finance must deliver to the Governor and the Legislature a forecast of cash flow for the general fund, showing the expected maximum and minimum cash balance in the fund for each month of the forecast period.

7         

Detailed budget.  Requires detailed budget documents submitted to the legislature to include the budget request of each organization unit within an agency, arranged in a form that can be readily compared with the governor’s budget for the unit and the agency.  Requires tables showing the appropriation base to be in column form broken down by appropriation allotments at budget activity level relative to proposed appropriation and allotment levels by budget activity.  Requires any appropriation change requested by an agency or a unit within an agency to be submitted in writing and include information that supports that change.  Requires budget documents to show the agency request.  Requires detailed budget documents to provide a spending trend analysis by program, showing at least the three most recent years of actual spending (or all available years for new programs).

8         

Deficiency requests.  Requires that by January 15 each year, the commissioner of finance notify the chair and ranking members of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees of any state agency requests to eliminate budget shortfalls likely to occur before the end of the legislative session.

9         

Duties and rights of classified employees.  Provides that state employees in the classified service are expected to be nonpartisan resources to all decision makers, and to assist both executive and legislative officials.  Requires workload concerns to be mediated in a manner that does not advantage any particular set of decision makers.  States that this section does not authorize an employee to disclose data that is not public under the Data Practices Act.

10     

Whistleblowers.  Provides that the employer may not discriminate against a classified state employee because the employee communicates information relating to state services that the employee in good faith believes to be truthful and accurate to a legislator or legislative employee or to an elected official in the executive branch.

11     

Budget working group.  Requires the commissioner of finance to convene a joint executive legislative working group to evaluate the usefulness and benefits of state budget documents and state budget information.  Requires a progress report by December 10, 2009.

12     

Repealer.  Repeals section 16A.152, subdivision 1b, which required the commissioner of finance to transfer money to the budget reserve account in 2003 and 2004.