Bill Text: CA ACA19 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: State budget.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-05-28 - In committee: Set, second hearing. Held under submission. [ACA19 Detail]
Download: California-2009-ACA19-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: ACA 19 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Blakeslee
MARCH 26, 2009
A resolution to propose to the people of the State of California
an amendment to the Constitution of the State, by amending Section 12
of Article IV thereof, relating to the state budget.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACA 19, as introduced, Blakeslee. State budget.
The California Constitution requires the Legislature to pass the
Budget Bill by midnight on June 15 of each year. The Constitution
further provides that money may be drawn from the Treasury only
through an appropriation made by law.
This measure would provide that, if the Budget Bill has not been
enacted by July 1, funds would be appropriated from the General Fund
and other funds and sources to the Controller for allocation by the
Department of Finance to pay current expenses for essential state
functions, as determined by the Department of Finance, during the
period from July 1 until the Budget Bill is enacted, at amounts equal
to appropriations for those state functions in the immediately
preceding fiscal year. The measure would further provide that if
total revenues in the current fiscal year from the funds and sources
that support those functions are estimated by the Department of
Finance to be less than those revenues in the immediately preceding
fiscal year, the amount appropriated for those state functions would
be reduced uniformly for all of those state functions by a percentage
that equals the percentage decline in revenue.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That the
Legislature of the State of California at its 2009-10 Regular Session
commencing on the first day of December 2008, two-thirds of the
membership of each house concurring, hereby proposes to the people of
the State of California that the Constitution of the State be
amended as follows:
That Section 12 of Article IV thereof is amended to read:
SEC. 12. (a) Within the first 10 days of each calendar year,
the Governor shall submit to the Legislature, with an explanatory
message, a budget for the ensuing fiscal year containing itemized
statements for recommended state expenditures and estimated state
revenues. If recommended expenditures exceed estimated revenues, the
Governor shall recommend the sources from which the additional
revenues should be provided.
(b) The Governor and the Governor-elect may require a state
agency, officer, or employee to furnish whatever information is
deemed necessary to prepare the budget.
(c) (1) The budget shall be accompanied by a budget bill itemizing
recommended expenditures.
(2) The budget bill shall be introduced immediately in each house
by the persons chairing the committees that consider the budget.
(3) (A) The Legislature shall pass the
budget bill by midnight on June 15 of each year. For any fiscal
year for which the budget bill has not been enacted as of July 1 of
that fiscal year, for the period from July 1 until the date of
enactment of the budget bill for that fiscal year, inclusive, funds
are hereby appropriated from the funds and sources described in
subparagraph (B), to be allocated by the Director of Finance for the
exclusive purpose of the payment of current expenses for essential
state functions, in amounts equal to the amounts
appropriated from those funds and sources for those expenses for the
immediately preceding fiscal year. If the Director of Finance
estimates that the total amount of revenues from the funds and
sources described in subparagraph (B) in the current fiscal year will
be less than the total amount of revenues from those
funds and sources in the immediately preceding fiscal year, the
amounts appropriated under this subparagraph shall be reduced
uniformly for all essential state functions by a percentage equal to
the percentage of that estimated decline in those revenue amounts.
The Department of Finance shall identify essential state functions
for purposes of this subparagraph to include, but not be limited to,
state functions for which funding is necessary to avoid or mitigate
one or more of the following:
(i) The imposition of significant fines or sanctions against the
State.
(ii) Negative impact to the physical infrastructure of the State.
(iii) Environmental damage to the State.
(iv) Negative impact to the safety of the public.
(v) Negative impact to the economic interests of the State.
(B) The Department of Finance shall allocate the funds
appropriated in subparagraph (A) from, as applicable, the General
Fund, special funds, bond funds, federal funds, and reimbursements.
(4) Until the budget bill has been enacted, the Legislature shall
not send to the Governor for consideration any bill appropriating
funds for expenditure during the fiscal year for which the budget
bill is to be enacted, except emergency bills recommended by the
Governor or appropriations for the salaries and expenses of the
Legislature.
(d) No bill except the budget bill may contain more than one item
of appropriation, and that for one certain, expressed purpose.
Appropriations from the General Fund of the State, except
appropriations for the public schools, are void unless passed in each
house by rollcall vote entered in the journal, two-thirds of the
membership concurring.
(e) The Legislature may control the submission, approval, and
enforcement of budgets and the filing of claims for all state
agencies.
(f) For the 2004-05 fiscal year, or any subsequent fiscal year,
the Legislature may not send to the Governor for consideration, nor
may the Governor sign into law, a budget bill that would appropriate
from the General Fund, for that fiscal year, a total amount that,
when combined with all appropriations from the General Fund for that
fiscal year made as of the date of the budget bill's passage, and the
amount of any General Fund moneys transferred to the Budget
Stabilization Account for that fiscal year pursuant to Section 20 of
Article XVI, exceeds General Fund revenues for that fiscal year
estimated as of the date of the budget bill's passage. That estimate
of General Fund revenues shall be set forth in the budget bill passed
by the Legislature.
