AB 910

Under current law, no later than September 15 of an even−numbered year, each executive state agency must file with the Department of Administration and the Legislative Fiscal Bureau the agency’s budget request for the succeeding biennium.

This bill requires that, every third fiscal biennium, each agency must include with its budget request, and must submit to the governor and the legislature, a report on a form prescribed by DOA that includes all of the following:

1. An identification of each fine and each fee, both as defined in the bill, assessed by the agency; the amount of the fine or fee; when the amount of the fine or fee was last adjusted; the act authorizing the agency to assess the fine or fee, including a description of the act and the date of enactment; and whether the specific amount of the fine or fee is established by statute.

2. A calculation of the amount of each fine or each fee in present-day dollars if the fine or fee were adjusted to account for inflation based on the consumer price index, rounded up to the nearest dollar, or, at the discretion of the agency, the nearest 25 cents.

3. Except for fees whose amounts are not specified by statute, a recommendation with respect to adjusting each fine and each fee to reflect the inflation-adjusted amount calculated by the agency or a recommendation to take no action to adjust the amount of the fine or fee. For each fee charged in connection with services provided by the agency, the recommendation must take into account the agency’s cost to provide those services relative to the inflation-adjusted amount.

4. An identification of the amount the agency is authorized to expend each fiscal year from the revenues of each fine or fee.

5. A plan to implement the agency’s recommendation. Under the bill, the plan may include a graduated increase in the amount of the fine or fee over a period of no more than four years. In developing the implementation plan, the agency must take into account the financial impact of an increase in the fine or fee on the persons assessed the fine or fee.

Additionally, under the bill, at the time each agency submits the report described above, the agency must also submit a separate report to the governor on a form prescribed by DOA that identifies each fine or fee for which the amount is not specified by statute and the agency has the authority to set or adjust the dollar amount and that includes a recommendation with respect to adjusting the fine or fee to reflect the inflation-adjusted amount of the fine or fee. For a fee charged in connection with services provided by the agency, the recommendation must take into account the agency’s cost to provide those services relative to the inflation-adjusted amount.

Finally, no later than 60 days after the bill becomes effective, and no later than January 31 every six years thereafter, the bill requires LFB to publish a table showing the annual consumer price index for the preceding 50 years. At an agency’s request, LFB must assist the agency in calculating the inflation-adjusted amount of a fine or fee.