Provides for making budget expenditure estimates available to the public, open hearings thereon, and for the use of conference committees

1 Co-sponsor

• Ruben Diaz

Title of bill

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY proposing amendments to article 7 of the constitution, in relation to requiring estimates of budget expenditures by state departments to be made available to the public; and providing for the use of conference committees

Purpose

To require that estimates and information required by the Constitution to be furnished to the governor by department heads for the preparation of the state budget shall be made available to the public and that budget hearings be open to the public; to require that all budget bills passed by one house of the legislature be referred to a conference committee, which must convene a public meeting to report on the bill.

Summary of provisions

This resolution proposes a constitutional amendment (article 7) to: (1) require that estimates and information furnished to the governor by department heads for the preparation of the state budget be made avail- able to the public and that budget hearings be open to the public; (2) require that all budget bills passed by one house of the legislature be referred to a conference committee, which must convene a meeting to report on the bill; and (3) such conference committees must be open to the public.

Justification

It has become common practice for state budget bills to be negotiated in secret by the Governor, the Assembly Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader and to place these bills on the floors of the respective houses with a message of necessity from the Governor allowing them to be acted upon immediately. This secretive nature of the process begins in the budget preparation stage, thus necessitating a requirement that department estimates and information be made available to the public at the time they are submitted to the governor. The secretive negotiating process can be partially addressed by requiring the conference committees be required to meet and report on all budget bills passed by either house and that their meetings be open to the public. The current practice is a perversion of democracy and open government, because it reduces the people's elected representatives to rubber stamps of the secret agreement reached by the State's power triumvirate.

Legislative history

02/20/08 OPINION REFERRED TO JUDICIARY

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That the foregoing be referred to the first regular legislative session convening after the next succeeding general election of members of the assembly, and, in conformity with section 1 of article 19 of the constitution, be published for 3 months previous to the time of such election.