JFAC briefed on deficiency warrants, supplementals and emergency-clause use

Kellen McGurkin, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, briefed the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee on Jan. 7 about deficiency warrants, supplementals, rescissions and the constitutional emergency clause that allows some current-year adjustments to take effect immediately.

McGurkin explained that deficiency warrants are a statutory exception that allow select agencies to spend money against the general fund for specific, authorized purposes without a prior appropriation, and that those expenditures are later presented to the committee so the agency’s account can be appropriated and the outstanding balance zeroed out. "Deficiency warrants allow select agencies to spend monies against the general fund for select purposes as authorized in statute without a prior appropriation," McGurkin said.

He said the Board of Examiners and the Board of Land Commissioners commonly authorize such expenditures in practice; the Board of Examiners includes the governor and the secretary of state, and McGurkin’s presentation noted the broader membership and role in authorizing emergency spending. Typical authorized uses cited in the briefing include dam safety, fire suppression and pest control, and the presentation noted that pest-control deficiency requests have driven much of the increase in deficiency-warrant activity in recent years.

Supplemental requests are ordinary appropriations that adjust the current fiscal year’s budgets and follow the same appropriation process as other bills; they are not an automatic authority to spend. McGurkin provided the governor’s recommended supplemental totals for the current session — $604,842,000 in total adjustments, including $98,776,000 from the general fund — and said those figures include a proposed transfer of $60,000,000 from the general fund to the fire-deficiency fund.

McGurkin reviewed the emergency clause in the Idaho Constitution and noted that, to make a supplemental or rescission take effect immediately during the fiscal year, JFAC can include emergency language in the approving bill. Committee members discussed how to judge whether a situation rises to the level of a bona fide emergency, noting past efforts to limit routine or predictable spending being treated as supplemental emergencies.

Committee members were reminded that this committee decides both whether to approve current-year adjustments and whether they must take effect immediately via the emergency clause or can wait until the end of the fiscal year. McGurkin said department-specific hearings later in the session will provide line-item detail on submitted deficiency-warrant and supplemental requests.