Report Title:

Emergency and Budget Reserve Fund

 

Description:

Requires a deposit into the emergency and budget reserve fund at the close of any fiscal year whenever there is a carryover cash surplus in the general fund.  The deposit is equal to 15% of the closing general fund balance.

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

573

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT


 

 

RELATING TO EMERGENCY AND BUDGET RESERVE FUND.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  Section 328L-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "§328L-3  Emergency and budget reserve fund.  (a)  There is established in the state treasury the emergency and budget reserve fund which shall be a special fund administered by the director of finance, into which shall be deposited:

     (1)  Twenty-four and one-half per cent of the moneys received from the tobacco settlement moneys under section 328L-2(b)(1);

     (2)  Deposits made pursuant to subsection (b); and

    [(2)] (3)  Appropriations made by the legislature to the fund.

     (b)  Whenever the state general fund balance at the close of any fiscal year represents a carryover cash surplus, the director of finance shall deposit fifteen per cent of the balance amount into the emergency and budget reserve fund.  The director shall deposit the funds within ninety days of the close of the fiscal year.

     [(b)] (c)  All interest earned from moneys in the emergency and budget reserve fund shall be credited to the general fund.

     [(c)] (d)  Expenditures from the emergency and budget reserve fund shall be a temporary supplemental source of funding for the State during times of emergency, economic downturn, or unforeseen reduction in revenues.  No expenditures shall be made from the emergency and budget reserve fund except pursuant to appropriations.  The general appropriations bill or the supplemental appropriations bill, as defined in section 9 of article VII of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii, shall not be used to appropriate moneys from the emergency and budget reserve fund.  The governor, through an appropriations bill, may recommend expenditures from the emergency and budget reserve fund by setting forth the purposes of the expenditures consistent with subsection [(d),] (e), the amounts, and the reasons justifying the necessity for the appropriations.

     [(d)] (e)  The legislature may make appropriations from the fund for the following purposes:

     (1)  To maintain levels of programs determined to be essential to public health, safety, welfare, and education;

     (2)  To provide for counter cyclical economic and employment programs in periods of economic downturn;

     (3)  To restore facilities destroyed or damaged or services disrupted by disaster in any county; and

     (4)  To meet other emergencies when declared by the governor or determined to be urgent by the legislature.

     Any act making appropriations from the emergency and budget reserve fund shall include a declaration of findings and purposes setting forth the purposes, the amounts, and the reasons why the appropriations are necessary and shall require a two-thirds majority vote of each house of the legislature.

     [(e)] (f)  Appropriations for the following purposes from the emergency and budget reserve fund are specifically prohibited:

     (1)  To meet expenses of the legislature;

     (2)  To provide for salary adjustments for officials appointed pursuant to article V, section 6 or article VI, section 3 of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii and for others whose salaries are directly related to salaries of these officials; and

     (3)  To fund cost items in any collective bargaining contract."

     SECTION 2.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect on June 30, 2010.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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