Committee introduces measure to require agencies to report vacant positions and employee travel

Members of the Ways and Means Committee introduced RS 32,787, a legislative request that would require state agencies to identify vacant positions and the budgeted funds tied to those vacancies and to list employee travel in their next budget submissions.

The measure, presented by Mike Moyle, District 10, would “require agencies, next year, when they submit their budgets to identify any empty positions and why they're vacant, and the money that's associated with that vacancy,” Moyle said. He added the RS would also ask agencies for “a list of all the travel that agency members took, who paid for it, where they went, and what they did.”

The nut graf: The committee’s action aims to give the legislature clearer information on payroll and travel expenditures linked to unfilled positions, which sponsors said have not been consistently tracked across agencies.

In committee debate Representative Monks moved to introduce RS 32,787 and recommend that it be placed on the second-reading calendar. Moyle described the proposal as a softened version of a prior bill, saying the language asks agencies to identify items rather than imposing specific mandates: “We softened it up for concerns from our agencies and others instead of requiring certain things to happen. We just require them to identify.”

The motion to introduce and recommend the RS for second reading passed by voice vote; the chair called for ayes and then nays. Representative Bell and Representative Achilles were recorded as voting nay. No formal tally of yes votes was listed in the transcript.

Following the vote, the RS was sent to the second-reading calendar for further consideration.