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Legislators press for clearer reporting on continuously appropriated funds, cash balances
Summary
Legislative staff described how continuously appropriated funds work, highlighted reporting challenges and recommended clearer appropriation language and more visible reporting of off-budget cash that flows through state funds.
Legislative fiscal staff briefed the Joint Legislative Sessions on continuously appropriated funds and statewide cash balances, warning that significant sums flow outside the annual appropriation process and that reporting gaps make oversight harder.
Presenters explained that a continuous appropriation lets an agency spend from a fund without an annual appropriation line; spending is limited by cash available and statutory rules, not by a single-year appropriation. Brett Butcher and staff described the strategic initiatives fund and the state lottery fund as examples of funds established by statute with continuous spending authority for prescribed purposes.
Frances Lippett and other analysts presented a consolidated fund analysis showing the beginning and ending balances for dedicated funds and highlighted examples where large balances were committed to multiyear capital projects. Lippett told lawmakers the permanent building fund supports long-lived capital projects and can have large committed balances that don’t show as expendable cash in a single fiscal year. She said language in appropriation bills and reporting on project status are tools the legislature currently uses to track those balances.
Legislators pressed staff on why so much spending (for example, sales tax revenues and dedicated funds) does not appear in the appropriation book. Staff said the budget book will include more of these figures going forward, and the legislative budget team has already collated continuously appropriated expenditures for fiscal 2024.
Committee members asked about fee-supported boards and commissions, and staff noted the legislature has been adding reporting requirements in appropriation language to monitor boards whose fund balances fall outside a policy band. Auditors and legislative staff said the state audit office had flagged some boards with unexpectedly large cash balances and recommended bringing those balances into a more appropriate range.
Presenters and committee members agreed the legislature needs better consolidated reporting on off-budget cash flows and a clearer statutory and appropriation framework for funds that have multiyear or continuous spending authority; staff said updated reporting will be included in the legislative budget book going forward.
