SB 6818 -
By Committee on Appropriations
ADOPTED AND ENGROSSED 03/07/2008
Strike everything after the enacting clause and insert the following:
"NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 The intent of the legislature is to make
state revenue and expenditure data as open, transparent, and publicly
accessible as is feasible. Increasing the ease of public access to
state budget data, particularly where the data are currently available
from disparate internal government sources but are difficult for the
public to collect and efficiently aggregate, significantly contributes
to governmental accountability, public participation, agency
efficiency, and open government.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2 A new section is added to chapter 44.48 RCW
to read as follows:
(1) By January 1, 2009, in collaboration with the office of
financial management, using existing databases and structures currently
shared, the office of the legislative evaluation and accountability
program committee shall establish and make available to the public a
searchable state expenditure information web site. The state
expenditure information web site shall provide access to current budget
data, access to current accounting data for budgeted expenditures and
staff, and access to historical data. At a minimum, the web site will
provide access or links to the following information as data are
available:
(a) State expenditures by fund or account;
(b) State expenditures by agency, program, and subprogram;
(c) State revenues by major source;
(d) State expenditures by object and subobject;
(e) State agency workloads, caseloads, and performance measures,
and recent performance audits; and
(f) State agency budget data by activity.
(2) "State agency," as used in this section, includes every state
agency, office, board, commission, or institution of the executive,
legislative, or judicial branches, including institutions of higher
education.
(3) The state expenditure information web site shall be updated
periodically as subsequent fiscal year data become available, and the
prior year expenditure data shall be maintained by the legislative
evaluation and accountability program committee as part of its ten-year
historical budget data.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3 A new section is added to chapter 43.88 RCW
to read as follows:
(1) The office of financial management shall make electronically
available to the public a database of state agency contracts for
personal services required to be filed with the office of financial
management under chapter 39.29 RCW.
(2) The state expenditure information web site described in section
2 of this act shall include a link to the office of financial
management database described in subsection (1) of this section.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4 A new section is added to chapter 28A.150
RCW to read as follows:
(1) Upon the release of each proposed omnibus appropriations act
and final enacted budget, the legislative evaluation and accountability
committee shall prepare and cause to be posted on a publicly accessible
web site a presentation consisting of potential examples of the types
and levels of educational programs and services supported by funding
provided in the proposed or enacted omnibus appropriations act under
specified allocations for the support of common schools.
(2) The purpose of the presentation created in subsection (1) of
this section is to make transparent to the public, using categories and
terms that are readily understood, examples of the type and level of
educational programs and services supported by funding appropriated in
the omnibus appropriations act under specified programs for support of
the common schools. Such transparency promotes better public
understanding of the state resources provided to support the common
schools. The information in the presentation is for illustrative
purposes only. It is not intended, nor is it to be construed, to
represent how state allocations are actually used by individual school
districts, nor how school districts are expected or required to expend
state allocations.
(3) Each legislative evaluation and accountability program
committee presentation prepared under this section shall provide
estimates for the following items, based on the level of state funding
appropriated in the budget bill for which the presentation is prepared
and for the school year immediately following the legislative session
in which the bill is considered:
(a) For the general apportionment program:
(i) Estimated state-funded class size in elementary, middle, and
high school grade spans;
(ii) Average state-funded teacher salary, total teacher
compensation, administrator salary, and classified staff salary;
(iii) Estimated number of state-funded staff of various
classifications in a hypothetical average-sized school; and
(iv) Estimated amount per pupil for nonemployee related costs,
including a breakdown of the per pupil amount by selected major
categories of expenditure;
(b) For the learning assistance program, the transitional bilingual
program, and the highly capable student program: Estimated hours of
additional instruction per week in each program;
(c) For the special education excess cost allocation: Estimated
amount per eligible student;
(d) For the promoting academic success program: Estimated hours of
remediation for various types of students, hours of teacher planning
time, and class size; and
(e) For the student achievement fund: Estimated amount per pupil
in each category of use of the funds under RCW 28A.505.210 and
estimated staffing or additional instructional time supported by the
funds in a hypothetical average-sized school.
(4) Each document shall also contain a brief narrative description
of how the estimates provided under subsection (3) of this section were
calculated and the major assumptions behind the calculations.
Estimates may be developed using documented expenditure patterns of
school districts, best practices, or other sources of information."
Correct the title.