Legislative Budget Reduction- Work Group Recommendations

Speaker’s Commission on Legislative Reform
June 11, 2007
Voting Meeting

            (1.)  The proposed appropriation for the General Assembly of $316,629,000 should be immediately reduced by ten percent (10%) to a line item appropriation of $284,966,000, representing a $ 31,663,000, million saving in the 2007-08 budget.

            (2.)  In advance of the 2008 budget, the Legislative Audit Advisory Commission should conduct a more detailed study of the legislative branch budget for the period from 2005-06, to better illuminate spending levels and patterns and to make recommendations for further cuts in the 2008-09 budget.

            (3.)  Beginning as of January 2, 2007 and at the completion of each 2-year legislative session, an independent audit should be conducted and publicly released for all legislative branch expenditures.

            (4.)  All caucus-paid staff positions should be examined to determine which “non-policy” positions may be converted from partisan caucus positions to non-partisan positions.

            (5.)  General Assembly facilities maintained separately by the four caucuses (House and Senate) such as bill rooms, TV production studios, radio production studios, computer operations, printing facilities and others should be reviewed to determine whether operating efficiencies may be achieved by combining them with comparable facilities and/or facilities controlled by another caucus or chamber.

            (6.)  “Per member” accounts should be established and/or limits should be placed on expenditures for member-directed constituent communications, such as newsletters and other mailings; media outreach, including Public Service Announcements (PSA’s); publications; with the joint goals of equalizing taxpayer funded expenditures for constituent communications and making each member accountable for expenses for constituent communications activities.  In order to account for the differences in costs among legislative districts for media access and other aspects of constituent communications, these “per member” allowances may be made subject to an equitable formula which would take into account increased communications costs in certain regions of the Commonwealth.   

            (7.)  A benchmarking study should be undertaken to identify current staffing levels and costs for member district offices, followed by the adoption of written policies for the number, operation and maintenance of such district offices.

            (8.)  Written policies should be adopted and published for the awarding of legislative staff bonuses, to allow for legitimate bonus compensation for extraordinary efforts and eliminating the potential for arbitrary awarding of such bonuses.  Further staff salary benchmarking should be conducted to determine whether levels of “capped salaries” should be revised or eliminated, to reduce the frequency of awarding staff bonuses.

            (9.)  Limitations should be placed on the accumulation and retention of legislative reserves through the “non-lapsing” of unexpended appropriations.  For example, non-lapsing of unexpended legislative appropriations might be limited to 10 % per year; OR accumulated legislative reserves might be capped at 6 months of legislative operating costs.

            (10.)  A legislative capital expenditures plan should be developed and considered annually, to better control expenditures for office renovations; furnishings; technology enhancements; computer equipment replacements; and other capital expenses.

            (11.)  All expenditures which pertain to an individual legislator should be tracked and made available for public inspection so that member expenses may be more transparent and resources may be allocated equally among members.

            (12.)  Unexpended member expenses account balances at the end of each legislative session (such as reimbursable office expenses and postage) should lapse back to the General Fund, rather than lapsing back to legislative reserve accounts.

            (13.)  The various quasi-legislative entities identified at Paragraph 2 (Background) above should be reviewed to determine whether the entity continues to provide a necessary service to the General Assembly and whether any operating efficiencies could be realized.

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