FISCAL NOTE
Date Requested: February 20, 2025
Time Requested: 03:29 PM |
| Agency: |
State Budget Office, WV |
|---|
| CBD Number: |
Version: |
Bill Number: |
Resolution Number: |
| 1965 |
Introduced |
HB2693 |
|
|---|
| CBD Subject: |
State Personnel |
|---|
|
FUND(S):
All funds
Sources of Revenue:
General Fund
Legislation creates:
Creates New Expense, Creates New Program, Creates New Fund: Division of Personnel Vacant Position Fund
Fiscal Note Summary
Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.
Summarize in a clear and concise manner what impact this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.
Many of the costs to state government associated with this bill are difficult for the State Budget Office (SBO) to calculate without additional clarification. This bill will necessitate thousands of manual budget, finance, and human resources transactions through wvOASIS at the beginning of each fiscal year and additional transactions each time a position is filled or vacated—which happens every day. SBO would need to hire additional personnel to accomplish the requirements of this piece of legislation.
The bill would also likely have a negative effect on the size of any potential general revenue year-end surpluses going forward. This is because personal services appropriations that go unspent and would otherwise expire back to the surplus balance of general revenue will instead be transferred to the Revenue Shortfall Reserve Fund (Rainy Day A). This would mean there would be fewer dollars in end-of-year surpluses available to future legislatures.
Fiscal Note Detail
| Effect of Proposal |
Fiscal Year |
2025
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
2026
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
Fiscal Year
(Upon Full
Implementation) |
| 1. Estmated Total Cost |
0 |
300,000 |
300,000 |
| Personal Services |
0 |
250,000 |
250,000 |
| Current Expenses |
0 |
50,000 |
50,000 |
| Repairs and Alterations |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Assets |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2. Estimated Total Revenues |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):
Please explain increases and decreases in personal services, current expenses, repairs and alterations, assets, other costs and revenues, including assumptions and data sources and delineation between start-up and ongoing costs. Please also include a long-range schedule of costs and revenues if fiscal impact is expected to vary in future years.
Additional Budget and HR staff will be required to meet the requirements of this legislation.
Many of the costs to state government associated with this bill are difficult for the State Budget Office (SBO) to calculate without additional clarification.
Memorandum
Please identify any areas of vagueness, technical defects, reasons a bill would not have a fiscal impact, and/or any special issues not captured elsewhere on this form.
This proposed bill will cause the “Secretary of Treasury” to ensure that “personal services appropriations” (a term that is not defined by the bill) be transferred to a newly created fund organized under the control of the Division of Personnel.
The bill is unclear on what it would mean to make these transfers and is silent about how the various fund classes (i.e. general revenue, special revenue, federal revenue, etc.) will be handled:
For example, general revenue funds that cover the salary for a vacant position are not available to be transferred all at once at the beginning of the fiscal year (or whenever the effective date is, which is not defined). Normally, General revenue cash transfers appear as an expense in the wvOASIS system, meaning reports would show that money as being completely spent. Then to get those personal services appropriations back to the original fund when a position is filled, that transfer back would appear as an additional cash expenditure and potentially an additional collection for the general revenue fund. This would be extremely difficult to track and would result in a significant amount of double-counting. wvOASIS would need to have time to develop a protocol for these transactions to arrive at a meaningful accounting of this program.
Special revenue appropriations in the budget bill represent spending authority for cash accounts held by state agencies for specific purposes. Actual cash transfers of these accounts would not be possible for almost every special fund from a cash flow standpoint and the same reporting and accounting concerns mentioned above apply as well.
Federal funds that are appropriated in the budget represent spending authority as well. Funds are granted to the state for specific purposes and transferring federal awards to this new fund would not be within the scope of federal requirements. The state would risk a loss of federal funds and possibly face the potential for a clawback.
Person submitting Fiscal Note: Mike McKown
Email Address: mike.p.mckown@wv.gov