AN ACT
Relating to the budget document offered by the governor to the legislature; and
amending RCW 43.88.020.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE
OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
43.88.020 and 1994 c 184 s 9 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
"Budget" means a proposed plan of expenditures for a given period or
purpose and the proposed means for financing these expenditures.
(2)
"Budget document" means a formal((, written)) statement,
either written or provided on any electronic media or both, offered by the
governor to the legislature, as provided in RCW 43.88.030.
(3)
"Director of financial management" means the official appointed by
the governor to serve at the governor's pleasure and to whom the governor may
delegate necessary authority to carry out the governor's duties as provided in
this chapter. The director of financial management shall be head of the office
of financial management which shall be in the office of the governor.
(4)
"Agency" means and includes every state office, officer, each
institution, whether educational, correctional or other, and every department,
division, board and commission, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.
(5)
"Public funds", for purposes of this chapter, means all moneys,
including cash, checks, bills, notes, drafts, stocks, and bonds, whether held
in trust, for operating purposes, or for capital purposes, and collected or
disbursed under law, whether or not such funds are otherwise subject to
legislative appropriation, including funds maintained outside the state
treasury.
(6)
"Regulations" means the policies, standards, and requirements, stated
in writing, designed to carry out the purposes of this chapter, as issued by
the governor or the governor's designated agent, and which shall have the force
and effect of law.
(7)
"Ensuing biennium" means the fiscal biennium beginning on July 1st of
the same year in which a regular session of the legislature is held during an odd-numbered
year pursuant to Article II, section 12 of the Constitution and which biennium
next succeeds the current biennium.
(8)
"Dedicated fund" means a fund in the state treasury, or a separate
account or fund in the general fund in the state treasury, that by law is
dedicated, appropriated or set aside for a limited object or purpose; but
"dedicated fund" does not include a revolving fund or a trust fund.
(9)
"Revolving fund" means a fund in the state treasury, established by
law, from which is paid the cost of goods or services furnished to or by a
state agency, and which is replenished through charges made for such goods or
services or through transfers from other accounts or funds.
(10)
"Trust fund" means a fund in the state treasury in which designated
persons or classes of persons have a vested beneficial interest or equitable
ownership, or which was created or established by a gift, grant, contribution,
devise, or bequest that limits the use of the fund to designated objects or
purposes.
(11)
"Administrative expenses" means expenditures for: (a) Salaries,
wages, and related costs of personnel and (b) operations and maintenance
including but not limited to costs of supplies, materials, services, and
equipment.
(12)
"Fiscal year" means the year beginning July 1st and ending the
following June 30th.
(13)
"Lapse" means the termination of authority to expend an
appropriation.
(14)
"Legislative fiscal committees" means the legislative budget
committee, the legislative evaluation and accountability program committee, the
ways and means committees of the senate and house of representatives, and,
where appropriate, the legislative transportation committee.
(15)
"Fiscal period" means the period for which an appropriation is made
as specified within the act making the appropriation.
(16)
"Primary budget driver" means the primary determinant of a budget
level, other than a price variable, which causes or is associated with the
major expenditure of an agency or budget unit within an agency, such as a caseload,
enrollment, workload, or population statistic.
(17)
"Stabilization account" means the budget stabilization account
created under RCW 43.88.525 as an account in the general fund of the state
treasury.
(18)
"State tax revenue limit" means the limitation created by chapter
43.135 RCW.
(19)
"General state revenues" means the revenues defined by Article VIII,
section 1(c) of the state Constitution.
(20)
"Annual growth rate in real personal income" means the estimated
percentage growth in personal income for the state during the current fiscal
year, expressed in constant value dollars, as published by the office of
financial management or its successor agency.
(21)
"Estimated revenues" means estimates of revenue in the most recent
official economic and revenue forecast prepared under RCW 82.33.020, and
prepared by the office of financial management for those funds, accounts, and
sources for which the office of the economic and revenue forecast council does
not prepare an official forecast including estimates of revenues to support
financial plans under RCW 44.40.070, that are prepared by the office of
financial management in consultation with the interagency task force.
(22)
"Estimated receipts" means the estimated receipt of cash in the most
recent official economic and revenue forecast prepared under RCW 82.33.020, and
prepared by the office of financial management for those funds, accounts, and
sources for which the office of the economic and revenue forecast council does
not prepare an official forecast.
(23)
"State budgeting, accounting, and reporting system" means a system
that gathers, maintains, and communicates fiscal information. The system links
fiscal information beginning with development of agency budget requests through
adoption of legislative appropriations to tracking actual receipts and
expenditures against approved plans.
(24)
"Allotment of appropriation" means the agency's statement of proposed
expenditures, the director of financial management's review of that statement,
and the placement of the approved statement into the state budgeting,
accounting, and reporting system.
(25)
"Statement of proposed expenditures" means a plan prepared by each
agency that breaks each appropriation out into monthly detail representing the
best estimate of how the appropriation will be expended.
(26)
"Undesignated fund balance (or deficit)" means unreserved and
undesignated current assets or other resources available for expenditure over
and above any current liabilities which are expected to be incurred by the
close of the fiscal period.
(27)
"Internal audit" means an independent appraisal activity within an
agency for the review of operations as a service to management, including a
systematic examination of accounting and fiscal controls to assure that human
and material resources are guarded against waste, loss, or misuse; and that
reliable data are gathered, maintained, and fairly disclosed in a written
report of the audit findings.
(28)
"Performance verification" means an analysis that (a) verifies the
accuracy of data used by state agencies in quantifying intended results and
measuring performance toward those results, and (b) verifies whether or not the
reported results were achieved.
(29)
"Program evaluation" means the use of a variety of policy and fiscal
research methods to (a) determine the extent to which a program is achieving
its legislative intent in terms of producing the effects expected, and (b) make
an objective judgment of the implementation, outcomes, and net cost or benefit
impact of programs in the context of their goals and objectives. It includes
the application of systematic methods to measure the results, intended or
unintended, of program activities.
