BILL REQ. #:  H-2258.1 

Read first time 02/22/2007.   Referred to Committee on State Government & Tribal Affairs.

     AN ACT Relating to making state budget information available to the public; and adding a new chapter to Title 43 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The office of financial management shall create and make available to the public a state budget information web site. All agencies, including those in the legislative and judicial branches, are directed to cooperate with the office of financial management in this effort. The purpose of the web site is to make information about state budgets and state spending available at a single location even though some of that information may originate from outside sources, including the legislature, state auditor, judicial branch, or other entities.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   The budget information web site shall contain the following information:
     (1) For actual expenditures, expenditures by fund, by sub-object, and by month at the program level of detail;
     (2) For planned expenditures, allotments by fund, by object, and by month at the agency level, except for the department of social and health services and the office of the superintendent of public instruction, which shall be at the program level;
     (3) For performance and financial audits, copies of each audit issued on or after January 1, 2006, by the joint legislative audit and review committee, state auditor, federal government, or private entity auditing a state agency. Such audits must be indexed by agency, except for the department of social and health services, which must also be indexed by program, by type of audit, by auditing entity, by report date, and by the time period the audit covered;
     (4) For contracts required to be filed with or approved by the office of financial management, the contractor name, type of contract, statement of work, agency, amounts, time period of the contract, any contract amendments, and other similar information;
     (5) For performance and workload measures, actual and budgeted measures indexed by measure, time period, and by agency, except for the department of social and health services, which must also be indexed by program;
     (6) For historical financial information, data maintained by the legislative evaluation and accountability program in the ten-year historical database, including a summary explanation of how historical expenditures may differ from actual expenditures;
     (7) For budget information, copies of the governor's request documents, copies of budget proposals adopted by either chamber of the legislature, as well as legislative budget notes reflecting the enacted budget.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   In creating the web site, the office of financial management shall allow users to aggregate data to the highest level and view data at the lowest level of detail. The web site must allow users to compare total expenditures to allotments at the statewide level for an entire biennium. The web site must allow users to compare total expenditures to allotments by month for each fund, for each object of expenditure, and for each agency. The web site shall be made public no later than January 1, 2008. At a minimum, the web site shall always include information for the current and previous bienniums.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   In creating the web site, the office of financial management may link to data maintained by other state entities rather than duplicating the content, provided that such links are transparent to the user. The office of financial management shall consult with the administrator of the courts and the appropriate committees of the legislature in implementing this chapter. Nothing in this chapter requires or prohibits the office of financial management from including local government information on the web site.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   Sections 1 through 4 of this act constitute a new chapter in Title 43 RCW.