Sponsored by:
Assemblyman ERIC HOUGHTALING
District 11 (Monmouth)
Assemblywoman JOANN DOWNEY
District 11 (Monmouth)
Assemblyman JAMEL C. HOLLEY
District 20 (Union)
Assemblywoman ELIZABETH MAHER MUOIO
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
Assemblyman JAY WEBBER
District 26 (Essex, Morris and Passaic)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman Lampitt
SYNOPSIS
Requires State Auditor to annually report on unspent State account balances.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act requiring the State Auditor to annually report on unspent State account balances, supplementing chapter 24 of Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. No later than December 31 of each calendar year, the State Auditor shall report, in writing, to the Legislature, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), on the ending fund balances of all State agency accounts for the prior fiscal year. The report shall contain full and substantive analysis, in addition to statistical information, and shall:
(1) identify the amount of unspent funds present in each State agency account;
(2) contain a summary of the total amounts of unspent funds by each State agency, and those amounts unspent by fund type;
(3) contain information and recommendations for addressing the accumulation of those funds in each State agency to avoid waste, mismanagement, inefficiency, or fraud; and
(4) include such other information as the State Auditor may deem advisable.
2. This act shall take effect on July 1 next following the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the State Auditor to annually report, in writing, to the Legislature on unspent State account balances. The report, to be submitted by December 31st of each year, must, in addition to containing any other information the State Auditor deems advisable:
· identify the amount of unspent funds present in each State agency account;
· contain a summary of the total amounts of unspent funds by each State agency, and those amounts unspent by fund type; and
· contain information and recommendations for addressing the accumulation of those funds in each State agency to avoid waste, mismanagement, inefficiency, or fraud;
The intention of this legislation is to increase transparency to identify which accounts have funds sitting unnecessarily idle. The report required by this bill is modelled on the annual Fund Balance Report released by the Office of the State Auditor in New Mexico.