Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:54 – Limitations on appropriations
Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:54
- Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Appropriation: means an authorization by the legislature to a budget unit for a program to expend from public funds a sum of money, for purposes designated, under the procedure prescribed in this Chapter. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Fund: means an independent fiscal and accounting entity with a self-balancing set of accounts recording cash or other resources together with all related liabilities, obligations, reserves, and equities which are segregated for the purpose of carrying on specific activities or attaining certain objectives in accordance with regulations, restrictions, and limitations. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
- Liability: means a debt arising out of a transaction where goods or services have been received or rendered which must be liquidated, renewed, or refunded at some future date. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
- Nonrecurring revenue: means revenue received by the state from a source identified by the Revenue Estimating Conference as being of a nonrecurring nature. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
- Official forecast: means the most recently adopted estimate of money available for appropriation by the Revenue Estimating Conference as provided in Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
- Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
A.(1) Appropriations by the legislature from the state general fund and dedicated funds for any fiscal year shall not exceed the official forecast in effect at the time the appropriations are made. Except as otherwise provided by La. Rev. Stat. 39:75(E), appropriations by the legislature from any fund shall not exceed the official forecast of money available for appropriation from that fund in effect at the time the appropriations are made.
(2) Financing from any existing statutorily dedicated fund for appropriations other than the fund’s intended statutory purpose shall be limited to the prior fiscal year’s fund balance and shall not include anticipated fund balances for the ensuing fiscal year unless otherwise provided by law.
B. Appropriation of any money designated in the official forecast as nonrecurring shall be made only in accordance with the following:
(1) At a minimum, twenty-five percent of nonrecurring revenue shall be appropriated for deposit in the Budget Stabilization Fund.
(2)(a) Providing for payments against the unfunded accrued liability of the public retirement systems which are in addition to any payments required for the annual amortization of the unfunded accrued liability of the public retirement systems, required by Article X, Section 29(E)(2)(c) of the Constitution of Louisiana; however, any such payment to the public retirement systems shall not be used, directly or indirectly, to fund cost-of-living increases for such systems.
(b) At a minimum, for Fiscal Years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, the legislature shall appropriate no less than five percent of any money designated in the official forecast as nonrecurring to the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System and the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana for application to the balance of the unfunded accrued liability of such systems existing as of June 30, 1988, in proportion to the balance of such unfunded accrued liability of each such system. Any such payments to the public retirement systems shall not be used, directly or indirectly, to fund cost-of-living increases for such systems.
(c) At a minimum, for Fiscal Year 2015-2016 and every fiscal year thereafter, the legislature shall appropriate no less than ten percent of any money designated in the official forecast as nonrecurring to the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System and the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana for application to the balance of the unfunded accrued liability of such systems existing as of June 30, 1988, in proportion to the balance of such unfunded accrued liability of each such system. Any such payments to the public retirement systems shall not be used, directly or indirectly, to fund cost-of-living increases for such systems.
(3) After satisfying the requirements of Paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Subsection, the remainder may be appropriated only for the following purposes:
(a) Retiring or defeasance of bonds in advance and in addition to the existing amortization requirements of the state.
(b) Providing funding for capital outlay projects in the comprehensive state budget.
(c) Providing for allocation or appropriation for deposit into the Coastal Protection and Restoration Fund established in Article VII, Section 10.2 of the Constitution of Louisiana.
(d) Providing for new highway construction for which federal matching funds are available, without excluding highway projects otherwise eligible as capital projects under other provisions of law.
C. Appropriations by the legislature from the state general fund and dedicated funds for any fiscal year shall not exceed the expenditure limit.
D. Appropriations by the legislature of monies out of the Transportation Trust Fund to the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, office of state police, shall not exceed the following:
(1) For Fiscal Year 2015-2016, forty-five million dollars.
(2) For Fiscal Year 2016-2017, twenty million dollars.
(3) For Fiscal Year 2017-2018 and each fiscal year thereafter, ten million dollars.*
Acts 1989, No. 836, §1, eff. July 1, 1989; Acts 1993, No. 809, §1, eff. June 22, 1993; Acts 1997, No. 1149, §1, eff. June 1, 1997, and §4, eff. Nov. 5, 1998; Acts 2003, No. 1195, §1, eff. July 1, 2004; Acts 2011, No. 357, §1, eff. Nov. 21, 2011; Acts 2013, No. 419, §1, eff. July 1, 2013; Acts 2015, No. 380, §1.
*Act 720 of the 2018 Regular Session (Const. Amend.) removed the authority to appropriate funds from the Transportation Trust Fund for state police traffic control purposes.