BP BHEAD INT S [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to spending public funds efficiently and effectively; adding new sections to chapter 43.88 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. Washington state government has the vision to be the most effective and best performing service organization in the state. The state of Washington also expects to be the most effective and best performing state government in the United States, measured in terms of quality of customer service, accountability for cost-effective services, and productivity. With the passage of Initiative Measure No. 601 there are additional constraints on the growth of state government. It is the intent of the legislature to provide incentives to public employees to spend public funds in the most efficient and effective manner possible. The system that allows the spending of public money should reward frugality and innovation and should not facilitate wasteful spending.

By providing agencies with an amount equal to each agency's administrative savings, the legislature intends to permit each agency to enhance delivery of services to the customers of state government.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 43.88 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The efficiency fund is created in the custody of the state treasurer. An account within the fund shall be established for each state agency.

(2) Each year in the supplemental omnibus operating budget, the legislature shall appropriate to each agency's account within the efficiency fund an amount equal to that agency's administrative savings for the current fiscal year.

(3) The amount of each agency's administrative savings must be approved by the director of financial management during the budget development process under this chapter.

(4) Appropriations may be made under this section only when there are no restrictions on the funds that would prohibit:

(a) Their appropriation to the efficiency fund; or

(b) Their use for the purposes allowed in this section.

(5)(a) For the purposes of this section, "administrative savings" means unspent appropriations resulting from cost-effectiveness measures or productivity gains such as:

(i) Improved systems and procedures;

(ii) Better deployment and use of personnel;

(iii) Elimination of unnecessary expenditures;

(iv) Reductions in the cost of goods and services; or

(v) Elimination of waste, duplication, and operations of doubtful value.

(b) Administrative savings may not be the result of:

(i) Lower workloads, caseloads, or enrollments than were budgeted;

(ii) A lowering of the quality of services rendered; or

(iii) Shifting of expenses to another unit of government, revenue source, or fiscal period.

(6) Only the director of each agency or that director's designee is authorized to expend amounts in that particular agency's account in the efficiency fund.

(7) Expenditures from the efficiency fund may be used only for one-time expenditures to improve the quality of services to the customers of the state.

(a) Permitted expenditures include, but are not limited to, expenditures for employee training, technology improvements, new work processes, program innovations, equipment upgrades, office remodels, and performance measurement and benchmarking.

(b) Expenditures from the efficiency fund must not be used to expand a current program or create new programs that would have ongoing costs that would require future appropriations from the legislature.

(8) The fund is not subject to allotment under this chapter and an appropriation is not required for expenditures from the efficiency fund.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 43.88 RCW to read as follows:

During development of budget proposals to the legislature, the governor shall require recommendations from agencies of programs or expenditure items that can be eliminated in the ensuing biennium while maintaining the ability to achieve program objectives and performance measures identified under RCW 43.88.090. Any proposed budget reductions shall be credited against one hundred percent of the savings identified under this section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A new section is added to chapter 43.88 RCW to read as follows:

During the development of budget proposals to the legislature, agencies shall report their projected fiscal year administrative savings as defined in section 2 of this act to the office of financial management.