SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION No. 52

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED MARCH 7, 1996

By Senator KENNY

A Concurrent Resolution creating Joint Rules of the Legislature establishing procedures for deliberation on and consideration of the annual appropriations bill.

    Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of New Jersey (the General Assembly concurring):

    The Joint Rules of the Senate and General Assembly are amended by the addition of the following rules to be appropriately numbered:

    1. The chair of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and the chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee shall schedule public hearings, which may be conducted as separate or joint committee hearings of the committees, on the subject of the Governor's budget recommendations transmitted to the Legislature for the ensuing State fiscal year. Each public hearing shall be conducted to solicit the testimony of all interested members of the general public upon the Governor's budget recommendations but each hearing shall be limited in scope to testimony upon no more than four Executive branch departments, four non-Executive branch spending agencies, or four distinct budget topics. These public hearings may be conducted at the other hearings of the committees immediately following the testimony of State government officials upon the budget recommendations or before the committees upon other dates.

    The time, place and subject matters of each public hearing shall be determined by the chairs and communicated by each chair to the Office of Legislative Services for public notice thereof at least ten days in advance of each public hearing.

    2. The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Assembly Appropriations Committee shall undertake the preparation of the annual appropriations bill by the consideration of budget resolutions filed with the committees that propose to add, delete or otherwise change items in the Governor's budget recommendations transmitted to the Legislature. Budget resolutions detailing each item proposed to be added, deleted or changed may be sponsored by members of the Legislature, or by the Executive branch through the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting. Budget resolutions shall contain a statement explaining the proposed changes and the reasons therefor. All budget resolutions shall be filed with the committees before June 1, annually, except that budget resolutions may be filed with a committee on or after June 1, only upon a motion approved by all the authorized members of a committee. All resolutions to be filed with each committee shall be delivered to the Legislative Budget and Finance Officer and shall be made available to the public through the Office of Legislative Services.

    Each budget resolution filed with each committee shall be considered for adoption by the respective committee by way of separate, recorded roll call vote at an open public meeting of the respective committee held on or before June 15 annually, held either as separate or joint meetings of the committees, with a budget resolution considered adopted only upon the affirmative vote of a majority of the authorized membership of the respective committee by separate roll call votes during the meeting. No vote to approve a budget resolution shall be subject to a motion to lay on the table. A vote to adopt multiple budget resolutions by way of one recorded roll call vote shall be permitted but only upon a motion approved by all the authorized members of a committee. Resolutions filed with a committee shall be available to all committee members at least 72 hours before the meeting at which those budget resolutions may be considered for adoption. Budget resolutions filed with a committee shall be available for public inspection at the meeting of a committee at which those budget resolutions may be considered for adoption.

    Upon the conclusion of all voting upon budget resolutions by a committee, the chair shall direct that the Office of Legislative Services prepare for delivery to the chair an annual appropriations bill which shall reflect the Governor's budget recommendations as changed through all budget resolutions adopted by that committee.

    3. The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee after introduction of the annual appropriations bill in the Senate, and the Assembly Appropriations Committee after introduction of the annual appropriations bill in the General Assembly, shall each hold at least one public hearing, and are encouraged to hold several additional public hearings in different geographical regions of the State, during evening hours convenient to the public, which hearings may be held by the committees either separately or jointly, on the subject of the annual appropriations bill at which members of the Legislature and the Executive branch, and any interested members of the public may testify. Each committee shall have the proceedings of these public hearings recorded and shall have the transcript of the hearings printed, bound and available for all members of the respective house of the Legislature at least 24 hours before commencement of debate in the respective house on the third reading of the annual appropriations bill.

    4. This concurrent resolution shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This concurrent resolution proposes joint legislative rules establishing procedures for consideration of the annual State budget by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The joint rules require the committees to hold public hearings to receive public input on each department's budget as recommended in the Governor's budget message to the Legislature. The joint rules also establish a budget resolution process whereby the committees will consider and vote upon changes to the Governor's budget recommendations only at open public meetings pursuant to resolutions filed by legislators or by the Executive branch. The appropriations bill will be directed by the chairs to be prepared to reflect the Governor's budget recommendations with changes adopted only pursuant to resolutions approved by individual, recorded majority roll call votes of the committee members. The committees will be required to hold at least one public hearing after the introduction of the appropriations bill with transcripts of the public testimony available to members of each house of the Legislature at least 24 hours before house debate on final passage of the budget bill may begin.

    This concurrent resolution is a companion measure to Senate Bill No. 876 of 1996, the "Public Accountability for Revenues and Expenditures Act," that revises the Executive branch procedures for the development and submission of the Governor's annual budget recommendations, to promote public participation and government accountability in the State budget process.

Proposes joint legislative rules on consideration and preparation of the annual appropriations bill.