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Senate Finance sends bill to add Administrative Hearings to statewide cost-allocation plan
Summary
The committee voted unanimously to send Senate Bill 1116 to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation. The bill would add the Office of Administrative Hearings to the Statewide Cost Allocation Plan (SWICAP), allowing the office to recover allowable costs through statewide billing.
The Senate Finance Committee voted unanimously to send Senate Bill 1116 to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation after hearing from Division of Financial Management staff about changes to billing for the Office of Administrative Hearings.
Justin Collins, state financial officer in the Division of Financial Management, said, “The changes proposed provide clarity to the billing procedures for the Office of Administrative Hearings.” Collins described three components of the proposal: adding the Office of Administrative Hearings to the group of agencies DFM bills through the Statewide Cost Allocation Plan (SWICAP) rather than having some agencies direct-bill into dedicated funds; repealing language in the current billing statute cited in the statement of purpose; and adding language to require the Office of Administrative Hearings to work with DFM to build their billings into the SWICAP budget for the next year.
Collins summarized the operational effect: “They would only budget for those that they're serving and then only bill for those that they're serving.” Under the bill as described, the Office of Administrative Hearings would be added to the SWICAP budgeting and billing cycle so DFM allocates allowable shared-service costs once budgets are passed and then bills recipient agencies in the following year.
Senator Wintrow asked whether SWICAP would be used to pay for legal counsel and services from the Attorney General’s Office; Collins explained SWICAP allocates and recoups billable hours recorded by service agencies and allocates those costs to recipient agencies’ budgets so those costs can be billed after the budgets are passed. Collins deferred questions about the Attorney General’s office staffing and capacity to the Attorney General.
Senator Janie Ward Engle King moved to send Senate Bill 1116 to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation. Senator Harold Dearke seconded the motion. The committee conducted a roll-call vote and recorded unanimous support; the chair reported the motion passed with all 10 members voting yes.
The committee’s action advances the bill to the full Senate and, if passed there, would then be considered by the House Appropriations Committee as part of the regular interchamber process for policy bills that include budget effects.
