Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:29 – Budget guidelines
Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:29
- Agency: means any state office, department, board, commission, institution, division, officer or other person, or functional group, heretofore existing or hereafter created, that is authorized to exercise, or that does exercise, any functions of the government of the state in the executive branch, but not any governing body or officer of any local government or subdivision of the state, or any parochial officer who exercises functions coterminous with the municipality in which he performs those functions. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
- Budget office: means the section of the division of administration which monitors budgeting functions. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
- Budget request: means the document with its accompanying explanations, in which a budget unit states its financial requirements and requests appropriations. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
- Budget unit: means any spending agency of the state which is declared to be a budget unit by the division of administration and which is identified for accounting purposes by a five-digit number code. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
- Continuation budget: means that funding level for each budget unit which reflects the financial resources necessary to carry on all existing programs and functions of the budget unit at their current level of service in the ensuing fiscal year including any adjustments necessary to account for the increased cost of services or materials due to inflation and estimated increases in workload requirements resulting from demographic or other changes. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
- Existing operating budget: means the initial operating budget as adjusted for actions taken by the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, the Interim Emergency Board, the legislature, or the governor in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter or any other provision of law. 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.
- Functions: means duties, jurisdiction, powers, rights, and obligations, conferred or imposed upon, or vested in, any agency by law, or exercised, performed, or discharged by any agency without contravention of any provision of law. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
- Nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget: shall mean and shall contain the following:
(a) The budget unit's current-year existing operating budget as of December first. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
A.(1) On or before the twentieth day of September of each year, the budget office shall furnish to each budget unit a set of specific guidelines under which the budget unit shall provide information to allow the budget office to prepare a nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget and a continuation budget.
(2) The nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget and the continuation budget shall each be prepared by the budget office and submitted to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget at the first meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget after January first of each year.
(3) These guidelines shall reflect the most recent economic statistics available in regard to inflation, employment, population, and other socioeconomic factors.
B.(1) A budget unit shall submit its nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget estimate for the ensuing year in accordance with annual instructions to be provided by the division of administration. The format of the instructions shall be prepared by the division of administration working in conjunction with Senate fiscal staff, House of Representatives fiscal staff, and a representative from the legislative fiscal office. The annual instructions shall contain the nondiscretionary functions in the existing operating budget for each budget unit as of December first of the current fiscal year. The division of administration shall send the instructions for the nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget estimates at the same time as the instructions are sent to the agencies for the annual budget request submission.
(2) Each agency is directed to include in the nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget estimate all nondiscretionary requirements.
(3) The commissioner of administration shall establish a date for submission of the nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget estimates, which date shall afford the commissioner of administration sufficient time to prepare the nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget for inclusion in the continuation budget document. The nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget estimates shall be on the forms and in the manner prescribed in this Section and shall be accompanied by such other data as may be required, together with such additional information as the governor may request.
(4) Upon receipt of the budget unit’s nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget estimates, the division of administration shall review the estimates for reasonableness and shall combine the agency estimates with the mandatory statewide standard adjustments provided for in the continuation budget, and any means of financing substitutions that do not result in a net increase or decrease in the budget unit’s total budget and are necessary to finance a budget unit’s current-year existing operating budget as of December first in the ensuing fiscal year prior to the application of any other adjustments, which shall constitute the nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget for the ensuing fiscal year.
C. The nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget shall be derived and based upon the assumption that the current law and current administrative procedures will remain in effect for the forecast period.
D. The nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget and the continuation budget shall be contained in one document and shall be in a format which compares the budgets by budget unit, on the same page. For purposes of this Section, there shall be no less than four columns in this document:
(1) The first column shall represent the budget unit’s current-year existing operating budget as of December first.
(2) The second column shall represent the nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget which shall be the budget unit’s current-year existing operating budget as of December first, including the cost to provide the mandatory expenditures in the ensuing fiscal year, any means of financing substitutions that do not result in a net increase or decrease in the budget unit’s total budget and are necessary to finance a budget unit’s current-year existing operating budget as of December first in the ensuing fiscal year prior to the application of any other adjustments, and the growth in the mandatory statewide adjustments.
(3) The third column shall be the continuation budget as provided for in this Section.
(4) The fourth column shall represent the difference between the nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget and the continuation budget. The nondiscretionary adjusted standstill budget shall be presented at the same meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget as the continuation budget as provided in Paragraph (A)(2) of this Section.
Acts 1989, No. 836, §1, eff. July 1, 1989; Acts 1997, No. 1403, §2, eff. July 1, 1997; Acts 2005, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 5, §1, eff. Nov. 18, 2005; Acts 2008, No. 860, §1; Acts 2017, No. 402, §1, eff. July 1, 2017; Acts 2018, No. 664, §1.