Senate Bill No. 494
(By Senators Yoder, Manchin, Dugan, Dittmar, Schoonover and
Grubb)
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[Introduced February 20, 1995; referred to the Committee
on Government Organization; and then to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend chapter five-a of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding
thereto a new article, designated article four-a, relating
to the "commission on government cost and performance";
definitions; creation of the commission; composition and
appointment of the commission; the commission's duties,
which include studying ways to reduce governmental
bureaucracy and the burdens placed upon business by
government; and making appropriate recommendations to the
Legislature and the governor.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That chapter five-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by
adding thereto a new article, designated article four-a, to read
as follows:
ARTICLE 4A. COMMISSION ON GOVERNMENT COST AND PERFORMANCE.
§5A-4A-1. Definitions.
As used in this article, unless the context clearly requires
a different meaning:
(a) "Agency" means a West Virginia state governmental
agency, office, department, division or other entity with
autonomous power and authority that directly effects commerce,
public safety, health or welfare or which regulates a service or
activity enjoyed or engaged in by residents of this state.
(b) "Benefit" means a tangible manifestation of good or
positive impact to business or the public at large that results
from a governmental agency's or such agency's subdivisions or
subdivisions' activities. The impact shall be in the form of
protecting the public health or welfare, maintaining public
order, protecting the environment, reducing the costs associated
with conducting private business in this state, reducing the
burden of taxes on residential businesses and individuals,
reducing fraudulent claims for workers' compensation or unemployment compensation or public assistance benefits,
delivering essential governmental services or promoting the hire
and retention of the most competent, dedicated and creative
public employees: Provided, That, for the purpose of this
article, primary and secondary school teachers shall be included
in the meaning of the term "public employees."
(c) "Business" means privately held businesses, including
businesses which are owned or operated by individuals,
partnerships or corporations, which are duly licensed and
authorized for doing business in West Virginia and which are
actually engaged in doing business in West Virginia.
(d) "Cost effectiveness" means the cost of operating an
agency or one or more of its subdivisions is, at least equal to,
the tangible benefit to business interests in general or to the
public at large that result from such agency or such agency's
subdivisions or subdivisions' operations.
(e) "Essential services" means governmental services that
are necessary in order to protect the safety, health and welfare
of the public at large and to maintain public order.
(f) "Subdivision" means any separate division, department,
office or other entity operating under the authority of an agency that is comprised of two or more subdivisions, which performs a
separate and distinct operation, function or activity of
government, regardless of whether such operation, function or
activity is similar or dissimilar in character to any other
subdivision's operations, functions or activities which exists
under the authority of the same agency.
(g) "The commission" means the blue ribbon commission on
government cost and performance.
§5A-4A-2. Commission on government cost and
performance;
duties; power to subpoena witness and documents.
(a) There is hereby created the commission on government
cost and performance, hereinafter referred to as the commission.
The commission consists of seven members to be appointed by the
governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. The
commission shall be appointed for four-year terms and each member
may be removed from office during his or her unexpired term by
the governor upon a determination of neglect of duty or official
misconduct. Three members shall be owners, operators or
executive employees from small businesses that employ less than
five employees and who gross less than two hundred thousand
dollars annually. Four members shall be owners, operators or executive employees from larger corporate business concerns that
employ more than five persons and which gross more than two
hundred thousand dollars annually. At no time may more than four
members be of the same political party affiliation. All members
shall be West Virginia residents.
(b) The commission shall meet at least once every two months
and shall have as its major responsibilities the following:
Conduct a study encompassing all agencies of state
government to determine which agencies or which subdivisions of
the agencies are performing overlapping or duplicative services
with other agencies of state government. The study shall also
determine which agency or agencies or which subdivisions thereof,
performing nonessential services, exist at a greater cost to the
taxpayers than benefit, if any, dispensed therefrom. The study
shall additionally include a review of reporting requirements
that each agency studied imposes on businesses in this state:
Provided, That the commission shall review reporting form formats
to determine if such reporting forms require nonessential
information that is burdensome for businesses to produce, whether
separate agencies of government or separate subdivisions of a
single agency require duplicative information on separate reporting forms. The commission shall also determine the
feasibility of requiring separate agencies of government or
separate subdivisions of the same state governmental agency to
utilize computer technology in order to consolidate reporting
requirements and to share forms for gathering information rather
than sending separate forms requiring duplicative information:
Provided, however, That the commission shall consider the law
involving privilege or confidentiality relative to its study of
the feasibility of agencies sharing information.
The commission shall also study the functions that each
agency and its subdivisions perform and determine if the cost
involved in funding the operations of the agency or one or more
of its subdivisions is cost-effective relative to the benefit, if
any, that results for the public good from its operations. The
commission shall scrutinize closely any taxes, fees, fines,
penalties, costs, forfeiture actions or other collection devices
imposed by agencies and their subdivisions, while paying
particular attention to the stated or assumed policy behind such
collection devices, their character, the actual public policy
interest, if any, they serve and whether or not the primary
purpose of same is to perpetuate funding to maintain the operations of the agency or its subdivision or subdivisions
without commensurate benefit to business and the public at large.
The commission members shall be paid the sum of four hundred
dollars per meeting attended pursuant to such commission member's
duties hereunder and be reimbursed for all reasonable and
legitimate expenses, including, but not limited to, travel, meals
and lodging, in the attendance of such meetings authorized by
this chapter. The commission shall commence its activities no
later than the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-five, by convening its first meeting no later than such
date, at which time it shall set its agenda, assign
responsibilities among its members and otherwise set forth upon
the mission prescribed herein. The commission is hereby
authorized to enlist support staff sufficient to meet its
responsibilities hereunder. The Legislature shall from time to
time appropriate sufficient sums to pay the costs of the support
staff. The support staff may include, but is not limited to,
lawyers, accountants, clerical workers and persons with an
expertise involving the functions of government or creating
incentives to promote the development, expansion and promotion of
incentives for in-state business in this state.
On or before the first day of July, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-six, the commission shall present a written report
to the governor, the president of the Senate and the speaker of
the House of Delegates concerning its activities and findings at
the conclusion of its first year in service. Thereafter, in each
succeeding year on such date, until the commission's mission
hereunder to scrutinize the operations of state governmental
agencies is complete it shall make such written report. The
report shall specifically include recommendations relative to the
following:
(1) Which agencies of state government or the subdivisions
thereof are performing nonessential functions that have little or
no commensurate benefit to business or the public;
(2) Which agencies or subdivisions thereof of state
government can reduce reporting requirements by deleting requests
for nonessential information or by consolidating requests by
sharing reporting forms or the gathering and compilation of
information with other agencies of government;
(3) What taxes, fees, fines, penalties, forfeiture actions
or other costs and collection devices imposed by state government
exist that are unnecessary for the public good, unfair or unfairly imposed, detrimental to business interests or otherwise
serve no publicly redeeming function and are primarily designed
to perpetuate the existence of an agency of government or its
subdivision or subdivisions at the expense of business interests
or the public at large;
(4) Ways to reduce fraud in the filing and processing of
claims under the state workers' compensation and unemployment
compensation systems as well as in any other state governmental
system that dispenses financial benefits or welfare assistance:
Provided, That the commission shall study what steps may be taken
to enforce existing criminal provisions to prosecute any fraud,
including, but not limited to, the criminal provisions existing
relative to perjury and false swearing;
(5) How to reduce the size and cost of government, make it
more efficient, reduce fraud that is perpetrated against agencies
of government by persons seeking to gain financial benefits or
other financial advantage to which such persons are not entitled;
(6) How to provide tax incentives to employers to hire and
maintain employees and to reinvest profits back into the means of
production in order to foster economic expansion;
(7) Ideas developed during the activities of the commission intended to promote business activities for the benefit of
private business interests in this state;
(8) How to consolidate and streamline agencies, boards,
commissions and other instrumentalities of state government;
(9) Whether realistic and reasonable prospects exists for
privatizing particular state governmental functions;
(10) How to use information technology to reduce costs and
better serve businesses and the public at large; and
(11) The feasibility of integrating the functions of
government that exist as components of most state governmental
agencies including: (A) Administration; (B) management and
supervision; (C) program and budget development; (D) accounting;
(E) data processing; (F) personnel; (G) public employee training;
(H) acquisition and procurement; (I) contract management; (J)
buildings and grounds management and maintenance; (K) stock
rooms; (L) payroll; (M) travel; (N) purchasing; (O) auditing; (P)
copying; (Q) publications; (R) communications; (S) research; (T)
dissemination of information to the public; (U) strategic
planning; (V) inspections and investigations; (W) regulation; and
(X) chartering and licensing.
(c) The commission shall make rules that shall define criteria to be employed as a fair and uniform measuring device in
order to determine cost-effectiveness in relation to an agency's
or its subdivisions or subdivisions' operations.
(d) The commission shall have the power to subpoena
witnesses and documents and to conduct both financial and
performance audits.
(e) The commission shall additionally have the
responsibility to review any legislative proposal that is
proposed after the enactment of this chapter that envisions the
creation of a new agency or subdivision that is intended to
perform nonessential services or any other such proposal that
seeks to broaden the regulatory powers of any existing agency or
subdivision, whether or not such agency or subdivision currently
performs nonessential services. The commission shall conclude a
preliminary review of such proposal within fourteen days of being
presented with a draft copy of any such proposal and be prepared
to make available one or more of its members or employees for
public comment, on or after the fourteenth day, in any forum
authorized by the legislative body whose member or members is
sponsoring the proposed legislation: Provided, That any public
comment shall be limited in scope to whether the proposal is considered to be one that would be cost-effective, whether it
would result in any benefit or benefits for business or
individuals, whether it would impose additional burdens in the
form of additional taxes, fees or other costs on business or
individuals residing in this state and whether any additional
burden that would result from its enactment would be commensurate
to the benefit or benefits that would result from the proposal.
In the event any proposed legislation is too massive and complex
to be generally comprehended and meaningfully commented upon by
the commission or its employees within the time period prescribed
herein, the commission shall so state. Thereafter, in the event
the proposed legislation is enacted in law, the commission shall
make a study in accordance with its duties as set forth above.
§5A-4A-3. Ten percent expense reduction.
Every item in the state budget for the fiscal year beginning
the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-five,
shall be reduced by ten percent.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create the "Commission
on government cost and performance".It also makes findings and
declarations relative to the need to reduce and restrict
governmental bureaucracy by observing the natural tendency of governmental bureaucracies, especially nonessential ones, to
function primarily to justify and perpetuate their existences
rather than performing important and redeeming functions on
behalf of the public good. The bill, therefore, creates a
commission to study all state governmental agencies and their
subdivisions in an effort to determine which agencies are
performing essential services and which aren't. The commission
is also directed to study ways to reduce government, make it less
burdensome in relation to regulations, reporting requirements and
the imposition of taxes, fees and other collection devices
imposed upon private business concerns in the state and to reduce
fraud perpetrated against public and employment-related
assistance programs run by the state. Finally, the bill provides
that the commission is also directed to study all legislative
proposals involving the creation of new agencies or subdivisions
or the expansion of existing agencies or subdivisions in order to
report to the Legislature findings which relate to whether the
proposal would create a benefit commensurate to the additional
financial or regulatory burdens such proposal would impose.
This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.