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Senate committee delays SB304 implementation for county prosecutor accounting by one year
Summary
The Senate Government Operations Committee on Feb. 24 favorably recommended SB304, a measure that delays the implementation date for a prior law requiring prosecutors and certain counties to report billable hours, to await results of a forthcoming audit.
Senate Bill 304, a short amendment to a law requiring prosecutors and counties of the first class to account for time on civil and criminal cases, was favorably recommended by the Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee on Feb. 24.
Senator Weiler, the bill sponsor, told the committee: "This is a very simple bill. Senator Stevenson passed a bill last year that requires prosecutors and counties in the first class to, account for their time and billable hours on both civil and criminal cases. ... he asked me to open this profile to, postpone the, implementation implementation date by 1 more year because there's an audit coming out, and we wanna see the results of the audit." The committee then moved and unanimously approved a favorable recommendation for SB304.
The bill does not change reporting requirements established by last year's legislation; it only postpones the effective date by one year to allow the audit to be completed and reviewed by the legislature. Committee chair Senator Vickers called the vote and the motion to "favorably recommend SB304" passed unanimously.
No public comment was offered during the committee hearing on this item. The sponsor and committee characterized the bill as narrowly targeted and administrative — intended to give lawmakers and local officials the audit findings before statewide implementation.
SB304 will proceed to the next stage in the Senate with the committee's favorable recommendation. The committee did not specify the new implementation date in discussion beyond "one more year," and no statutory citation was put on the record during the presentation.
