5048-S.E AMH MANW FRAS 785

ESSB 5048 - H AMD TO H AMD (H-2540.1/17) 341

By Representative Manweller

NOT ADOPTED 03/31/2017

    On page 282, after line 30, insert the following:

"Sec. 960.  RCW 43.88.055 and 2012 1st sp.s. c 8 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The legislature must adopt a four-year balanced budget as follows:

(a) Beginning in the 2013-2015 fiscal biennium, the legislature shall enact a balanced omnibus operating appropriations bill that leaves, in total, a positive ending fund balance in the general fund and related funds.

(b) Beginning in the 2013-2015 fiscal biennium, the projected maintenance level of the omnibus appropriations bill enacted by the legislature shall not exceed the available fiscal resources for the next ensuing fiscal biennium.

(2) For purposes of this section:

(a) "Available fiscal resources" means the beginning general fund and related fund balances and any fiscal resources estimated for the general fund and related funds, adjusted for enacted legislation, and with forecasted revenues adjusted to the greater of (i) the official general fund and related funds revenue forecast for the ensuing biennium, or (ii) the official general fund and related funds forecast for the second fiscal year of the current fiscal biennium, increased by 4.5 percent for each fiscal year of the ensuing biennium;

(b) "Projected maintenance level" means estimated appropriations necessary to maintain the continuing costs of program and service levels either funded in that appropriations bill or mandated by other state or federal law, and the amount of any general fund moneys projected to be transferred to the budget stabilization account pursuant to Article VII, section 12 of the state Constitution, but does not include in the 2013-2015 and 2015-2017 fiscal biennia the costs related to the enhanced funding under the new definition of basic education as established in chapter 548, Laws of 2009, and affirmed by the decision in Mathew McCleary et al., v. The State of Washington, 173 Wn.2d 477, 269 P.3d 227, (2012), from which the short-term exclusion of these obligations is solely for the purposes of calculating this estimate and does not in any way indicate an intent to avoid full funding of these obligations;

(c) "Related funds," as used in this section, means the Washington opportunity pathways account and the education legacy trust account.

(3) Subsection (1)(a) and (b) of this section does not apply to an appropriations bill that makes net reductions in general fund and related funds appropriations and is enacted between July 1st and February 15th of any fiscal year.

(4) Subsection (1)(b) of this section does not apply in a fiscal biennium in which money is appropriated from the budget stabilization account.

(5)  (a) When any legislator or caucus of either house of the legislature introduces or otherwise publicly proposes omnibus operating appropriations legislation, that legislation must propose operating expenditures based on the estimated revenues and caseloads as approved by the economic and revenue forecast counsel and caseload forecast council, and upon revenue and caseload estimates of the office of financial management for those accounts and programs for which the forecast councils do not prepare an official forecast.  Revenues to support those proposed operating expenditures must be estimated from sources and rates existing at the time of the introduction or public proposal of the legislation. 

(b) If a legislator or caucus of either house of the legislature has introduced or publicly proposed omnibus operating appropriations legislation that complies with (a) of this subsection (5), then the legislator or caucus may also introduce, as an appendix to that legislation, a proposal for expenditures that relies on revenues derived from changes in existing revenue statutes.

(c) This subsection (5) applies to operating appropriations legislation introduced or proposed during the 2017-19 fiscal biennium."

    Renumber remaining sections consecutively and correct internal references accordingly.

    Correct the title.

EFFECT:   Omnibus operating budget bills introduced or publicly proposed by legislators or legislative caucuses during the 2017-19 fiscal biennium must be based on existing revenue laws.  Legislators or legislative caucuses may introduce or propose budget bills that rely on changes to revenue laws only as appendices to budgets that are based on existing revenue laws. 

FISCAL IMPACT: No net change to appropriated levels.

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