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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | April 23, 2015 04:15 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Rosemary M. Brown and Rep. George Dunbar |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Transparency in the Capital Budget Bill |
| In the near future, we will introduce legislation to help members of the general assembly cast more educated votes on upcoming Capital Budget Bills. Each year, the General Assembly is presented with a Capital Budget Bill from the Governor and asked to sign it. As you may know, this bill is a grant of authority to the Governor to incur new debt in the form of general obligation bonds to fund various capital projects in the upcoming fiscal year. For example, in the Capital Budget Bill for 2014-15, the Governor was granted the authority to borrow $1,295,000,000.00, to fund projects (of his choosing) in the five (5) different categories of Capital Projects. The Capital Budget Bill simply provides members of the House with the category of project, the amount the Governor wishes to borrow in the upcoming fiscal year and the fund to be used to repay the indebtedness. This legislation would require the Governor to identify the amount of money being sought to fund on-going projects and the amount being sought to fund “new” projects (defined as projects for which funding has not been previously authorized). Further, this legislation would require the Governor to provide a detailed report to the General Assembly, describing the projects that would be financed with the debt being incurred by the Capital Budget Bill. We are uncomfortable with voting on legislation to incur over a billion dollars in debt and encumber hundreds of millions of general fund dollars without being provided this basic information. We have an obligation to know before casting our votes. We urge you to support this basic effort in transparent government by adding your name to the list of co-sponsors. |
Introduced as HB929