Bill Text: HI SB2627 | 2012 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Constitutional Amendment to Article VII for Balanced Budget
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-01-23 - (S) Referred to JDL, WAM. [SB2627 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2012-SB2627-Introduced.html
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
2627 |
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TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2012 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
pROPOSING AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF HAWAII to require a BALANCED BUDGET.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The purpose of this Act is to propose amendments to sections 7 and 9 of article VII of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii to clarify that the legislature is required to enact a balanced budget using the latest council on revenues estimates and to provide standing for judicial review of a legislature's failure to meet Constitutional requirements.
SECTION 2. Article 7, section 7, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii is amended to read as follows:
"COUNCIL ON REVENUES
Section 7. There shall be established by law a council on revenues which shall prepare revenue estimates of the state government and shall report the estimates to the governor and the legislature at times provided by law. The estimates shall be considered by the governor in preparing the budget, recommending appropriations and revenues and controlling expenditures. The estimates shall be considered by the legislature in appropriating funds and enacting revenue measures. The governor and the legislature shall use the latest estimates prepared by the council as base estimates against which their revenue estimates shall be compared. All revenue estimates submitted by the council to the governor and the legislature shall be made public. If the legislature in appropriating funds and enacting revenue measures, or if the governor in preparing the budget or recommending appropriations, exceeds estimated current revenues and unencumbered cash balances due to proposed expenditures, this fact shall be made public including the reasons therefor."
SECTION 3. Article 7, section 9, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii is amended to read as follows:
"LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS; PROCEDURES;
EXPENDITURE CEILING; STANDING
Section 9. In each regular session in an odd-numbered year, the legislature shall transmit to the governor an appropriation bill or bills providing for the anticipated total expenditures of the State for the ensuing fiscal biennium. No general appropriation bill or other bill appropriating money for any purpose shall be enacted if the appropriations contained therein, together with all other appropriations made for each fiscal year in the biennium, exceed current estimated revenues and unencumbered cash balances available to meet such appropriations during such fiscal period. In such session, no appropriation bill, except bills recommended by the governor for immediate passage, or to cover the expenses of the legislature, shall be passed on final reading until the bill authorizing operating expenditures for the ensuing fiscal biennium, to be known as the general appropriations bill, shall have been transmitted to the governor.
In each regular session in an even-numbered year, at such time as may be provided by law, the governor may submit to the legislature a bill to amend any appropriation for operating expenditures of the current fiscal biennium, to be known as the supplemental appropriations bill, and bills to amend any appropriations for capital expenditures of the current fiscal biennium, and at the same time the governor shall submit a bill or bills to provide for any added revenues or borrowings that such amendments may require. In each regular session in an even-numbered year, bills may be introduced in the legislature to amend any appropriation act or bond authorization act of the current fiscal biennium or prior fiscal periods. No bill appropriating money for any purpose shall be enacted if the appropriations contained therein, together with all other appropriations made for each fiscal year of the same fiscal period, exceed current estimated revenues and unencumbered cash balances available to meet such appropriations during such fiscal period. In any such session in which the legislature submits to the governor a supplemental appropriations bill, no other appropriation bill, except bills recommended by the governor for immediate passage, or to cover the expenses of the legislature, shall be passed on final reading until such supplemental appropriations bill shall have been transmitted to the governor. Any member of the legislature, the Governor or the Attorney General of the State shall have standing and a cause of action to seek judicial enforcement of this section.
GENERAL FUND EXPENDITURE CEILING
Notwithstanding any other provision to the contrary, the legislature shall establish a general fund expenditure ceiling which shall limit the rate of growth of general fund appropriations, excluding federal funds received by the general fund, to the estimated rate of growth of the State's economy as provided by law. No appropriations in excess of such ceiling shall be authorized during any legislative session unless the legislature shall, by a two-thirds vote of the members to which each house of the legislature is entitled, set forth the dollar amount and the rate by which the ceiling will be exceeded and the reasons therefor."
SECTION 4. The question to be printed on the ballot shall be as follows:
"Shall the Legislature be required to enact a balanced budget using the latest council on revenues estimates and be subject to enforcement actions of the court if it fails to do so?"
SECTION 5. New constitutional material is underscored.
SECTION 6. This amendment shall take effect upon compliance with article XVII, section 3, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Constitutional Amendment to Article VII for Balanced Budget
Description:
Proposes a constitutional amendment to clarify that the Legislature is required to comply with balanced budget requirements and use the latest Council on Revenues estimates to enact a balanced budget; grants standing to specific officials to seek judicial enforcement.
The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
