GOP TO PULL "TRUTH IN SPENDING" BILL

The House Republicans released the following statement:

We have notified the Majority Party that House Republicans intend to pull our "Truth in Spending" Bill from the committee. What our proposal calls for is that there must be a fiscal note attached to all bills introduced in the state legislature. A "fiscal note" estimates the costs, savings, revenue gain, or revenue loss resulting from the implementation of proposed legislation.

Rep. Guy Ontai, the original sponsor of the bill, says: "Unlike Hawaii, where budget worksheets are exempt from the state sunshine law, fiscal notes in other jurisdictions are open public documents. They can be examined by the public as soon as the bill is introduced, in some cases, fiscal notes are available for viewing on-line."

At present, virtually no one, except perhaps the Chairman of the House Finance Committee and his staff, know exactly how much total money is being requested in the hundreds of appropriations bills submitted for consideration. Most frequently, the actual appropriation amount is left blank or is represented by a token one dollar so that the actual amount can be inserted by the Finance Committee before third reading.

Most states employ the use of fiscal notes as a requirement to any appropriation measures. Each state places the responsibility for the fiscal notes with a statutory entity. Many times these entities are quite different, e.g., Chief Legislative Fiscal Officer (Alabama); Office of Financial Management (Washington); Legislative Budget Board (Texas); Legislative Oversight Division (Missouri); Legislative Service Division (Ohio); Legislative Fiscal Office (Nebraska); and Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst (Utah).

(Details available upon request - "Fiscal Notes - a survey," HMIR)