Subcommittee on Earmarked Revenue/statutory Appropriations
Welcome to Legislative Fiscal Division page on earmarked revenues and statutory appropriations. Please read the introduction shown below, to get an idea of what this is all about and why it is being done.
The Subcommittee consists of the following members:
Senator B.F. "Chris" Christiaens, Chair
Representative John Witt
Senator Arnie Mohl
Representative Joe Tropila
Fiscal Staff to the subcommittee: Lorene Thorson 444-5387 lthorson@mt.gov
Date:
Click on any of the links listed below to see the detail. The links below are in "PDF" format. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, simply click on the Icon at the bottom of the page and get a free copy.
Introduction: The Legislative Finance Committee is charged with reviewing dedicated revenue provisions, also known as state special revenue, and statutory appropriations. Dedicated revenue is money designated by statute for a specific use and cannot be used for any other purpose. It is usually money raised by a fee, tax, or license and is used to provide services/benefits to those who pay. Statutory appropriations are appropriations of money for a specific purpose made by the legislature in permanent law (statute). Since these are permanent, they are not included in the biennial general appropriations act (House Bill 2) which is temporary and valid for only two years. They remain in statute until changed or repealed by the legislature. The Legislative Finance Committee appoints a subcommittee to conduct the required reviews and report back to the full committee with its recommendations. Since the required reviews were enacted in Senate Bill 378 (sponsored by Senator Grosfield) by the 1993 legislature, the subcommittee is known as the SB 378 Subcommittee.
The reviews of dedicated revenue provisions and statutory appropriations required in Senate Bill 378 were enacted for specific purposes. It was felt that dedicated revenue provisions should be reviewed from the viewpoint of who pays and who receives the benefit. If the money were from a general revenue source (paid by many people for instance) but only benefited a select group of people, than perhaps the money should be deposited to the general fund to be used for the benefit of all rather than the select group (legislatively, this action is termed "de-earmarking"). De-earmarking a revenue source does not necessarily mean that the function it was funding is eliminated. It just means that the function must now be funded with general fund money and compete with all other functions funded from the general fund. Therefore, de-earmarking revenue enables the legislature to better prioritize functions competing for limited general fund money.
As for statutory appropriations, it was felt that they should be reviewed from the viewpoint of being proper and necessary. Since statutory appropriations are permanently in statute and never included in House Bill 2, such a review would make sure that the legislature was keeping track of these special appropriations. Since the original purpose and circumstances for a statutory appropriation may change over time or since the legislative policy behind the statutory appropriation may not reflect current legislative policy, it is important that the legislature periodically review them. If a statutory appropriation were deemed no longer necessary or proper then it could be eliminated. Eliminating a statutory appropriation does not necessarily mean that the function receiving the appropriation is eliminated. It just means that the function has to receive an appropriation in House Bill 2 which is reviewed quite thoroughly by the legislature every two years. Therefore, eliminating statutory appropriations ensures that the legislature will more thoroughly and on a regular basis review the appropriations for the functions so it can make adjustments to them if necessary.
The SB 378 subcommittee will determine which dedicated revenue provisions and statutory appropriations it wants to review and make recommendations on to the full committee. Generally, the subcommittee will meet just prior to the regularly scheduled Legislative Finance Committee meetings. Its recommendations will usually be presented to and voted on by the full committee at the September meeting before a session. Legislation to enact the desired changes will then be introduced in the 2001 legislative session.
This section was authored by: Roger Lloyd rlloyd@mt.gov Senior Fiscal Analyst
