Senate Bill No. 24
(By Senators Burdette, Mr. President, and Boley,
By Request of the Executive)
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[Introduced January 14, 1994; referred to the Committee
on Finance.
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A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty, article two, chapter
five-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to creating a
revenue shortfall reserve fund; funding; and use of said
fund.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty, article two, chapter five-a of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. FINANCE DIVISION.
§5A-2-20. Reduction of appropriations -- Powers of governor.
(a) The governor may reduce appropriations according to any
of the methods set forth in sections twenty-one and twenty-two of
this article if and only if he or she has first attempted to draw
against the revenue shortfall reserve fund established in this
section, and such action proves unavailing or insufficient to
address any known or anticipated overdraft or deficit in thegeneral fund.
(b) A revenue shortfall reserve fund is hereby created
within the state treasury. The revenue shortfall reserve fund
shall be funded as set forth herein from surplus revenues, if
any, in the state's general fund budget, as such surplus revenues
may accrue from time to time. Within sixty days of the end of
each fiscal year, the secretary shall cause to be deposited into
the revenue shortfall reserve fund the first fifty percent of all
surplus revenues, if any, determined to have accrued during the
fiscal year just ended. In such manner, and on an annual basis,
the revenue shortfall reserve fund shall be funded continuously
and on a revolving basis up to an aggregate amount not to exceed
five percent of the state's general fund budget for the fiscal
year just ended. If at the end of any fiscal year the revenue
shortfall reserve fund is funded at an amount equal to or
exceeding five percent of the state's general revenue fund budget
for the fiscal year just ended, then there shall be no further
obligation on the secretary under the provisions of this section
to apply any surplus revenues as set forth herein.
(c) Not earlier than the first day of November of each
calendar year, if the state's fiscal circumstances are such as
to otherwise trigger the authority of the governor to reduce
appropriations under sections twenty, twenty-one, or twenty-two
of this article, then in such event the governor shall notify in
writing the presiding officers of both houses of the Legislature
of his or her intention to draw on the revenue shortfall reservefund established by this section, and direct the secretary to
draw down an amount or amounts from the revenue shortfall reserve
fund sufficient in the judgment of the governor to avert the need
for a reduction of appropriations. Such withdrawal of funds from
the revenue shortfall reserve fund shall be subject to prior
written approval of the presiding officers of both houses of the
Legislature. Should such approval not be forthcoming from both
presiding officers within twenty days of the governor's written
request for approval, then the governor may proceed with a
reduction of appropriations pursuant to section twenty-one and
twenty-two of this article. Should any amount drawn from the
revenue shortfall reserve fund pursuant to the direction of the
governor and the written approval of the presiding officers of
both houses of the Legislature, as set forth in this section,
prove insufficient to address any anticipated shortfall, then the
governor may also proceed with a reduction of appropriations
pursuant to sections twenty-one and twenty-two of this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a "rainy day"
fund to deal with midyear budget shortfalls.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.