Approved:       February 23, 2007      

Date

MINUTES OF THE HOUSE GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Jim Morrison at 3:35 P.M. on February 20, 2007, in Room 526-S of the Capitol.

All members were present except Representative Tafanelli, who was excused.

Committee staff present:

Mary Galligan, Kansas Legislative Research

Tatiana Lin, Kansas Legislative Research

Renae Jefferies, Office of Revisor of Statutes

Gary Deeter, Committee Assistant

Conferees appearing before the committee: None

Others attending:

See attached list.

The minutes for the February 19 meeting were approved. (Motion, Representative Loganbill; second, Representative Mah)

Renae Jefferies, Office of the Revisor of Statutes, reviewed the synthesis of previous balloon amendments into Substitute for HB 2457 –dealing with the Kansas taxpayer transparency act (Attachment 1). She said the present bill includes the two balloons from the February 19 committee meeting, excluding the stricken material. She commented on specific provisions of the bill: the single searchable website under the authority of the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Administration, the definition of an agency, the categories of receipts and expenditures, which extend beyond the appropriations parameters, the establishment of an advisory public finance transparency board, a beginning date of March 1, 2008, and the fiscal year’s information accessible 45 days after the end of the fiscal year.

Ms. Jefferies noted some important features of the bill. She said the Secretary has the latitude to determine what is available within the central accounting and state payroll systems as well as incorporating information from other sources. Data will be made accessible beginning with FY 2002 and retained on a single website for 10 years, with the earliest year being dropped at year 11 and subsequent years. She stated that an 11^th member, the state archivist, was added to the advisory board to help determine how information is to be archived, changing the quorum to six. She commented that the Secretary is given authority to implement the provisions of the act by policies and procedures. The Committee gave Ms. Jefferies freedom to make any grammatical or technical changes in the bill.

Members discussed provisions and details of the bill. Answering a question, Representative Sharp said compensation for board members is based on K.S.A. 75-3223.

Representative Sloan made a motion, seconded by Representative Sharp, to amend the bill to include the compensation provisions for legislative members and public members of the board under K.S.A 75-3223.

After brief discussion, the motion passed.

Responding to another question, Martin Eckhardt, Director, Central Accounting Services, Division of Accounts and Reports, Department of Administration (DofA), said that 45 days after the close of a fiscal year is sufficient to provide data from STARS (Statewide Accounting and Reporting System) and SHARP (Statewide Human Resources and Reporting and Payroll). Outside those two systems, he could not give a knowledgeable answer, observing further that the Secretary has flexibility in providing available data.

Tracy Smith, General Manager, Kansas.gov, replied to another question that Kansas.gov can work with DofA to create an ostensible single website and meet the requirements of the proposed legislation. Duncan Friend, Project Manager, Financial Management System, Division of Information Systems and Communications, DofA, replied that Kansas.gov is the public face, behind which DofA will supply the data.

A member noted that some agencies such as the Kansas Board of Regents make multiple-fund payments. Mr. Friend said if payments came from both state and local funds and if the accounts are not in SHARP, identifying sources would be problematic. Another member expressed concern about making a blanket rule to address isolated issues.

A member raised the question of access to budget narratives and how they could be obtained. Gavin Young, Director of Public Affairs, DofA, replied that the Governor’s budget includes narrative that can be searched online with Adobe Acrobat, but that agency budget requests go to the Kansas Department of Legislative Research; narratives provided to Research are not accessible online.

The Chairman commented that the bill will be implemented incrementally: what presently exists in STARS will be supplanted by the new Financial Management System (FMS), the latter which will enable the Secretary to expand accessible information. Mr. Friend commented that FMS will not be fully deployed until 2010.

Staff noted a wording variance in the bill, at one place instructing the transparency board to report to the Secretary and another place to advise and consult with the Secretary. A motion to amend was made, seconded, and passed to strike the word report and insert the word advise. (Motion, Representative Sloan; second, Representative Mah)

A member raised the question of funding costs for the bill. Mr. Friend said there will be some technical costs and, later, some hardware costs, but an accurate cost estimate would be difficult to make. Mr. Young suggested that the issue could be addressed with a Governor’s supplemental budget amendment or included in the Governor’s FY 2009 budget.

After some discussion regarding qualifications for board members, Representative Sharp made a motion, seconded by Representative Mah, to add the words or their designee after the title of members in Section 3(b)(1), (2), (3), (6), and (7). With the permission of the second and maker of the motion, Representative Kelley added a 12^th person, the Director of the Kansas Department of Legislative Research or his designee, to the list of board members,

After further discussion the motion passed.

Representative McLeland moved and Representative Kelley seconded a motion to amend the bill by adding three more public members to the board, 2 appointed by the Governor, one by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and one by the President of the Senate. The motion passed 7-6.

A motion was made and seconded to change the quorum requirement and the number of votes necesssary to take action to 8 members and to recommend the bill favorably for passage. (Motion, Representative Sloan; a second was made later by Representative Siegfreid)

Members discussed budget narrative, appropriation reports, budget analyses, and agency budget requests. Mr. Young commented that database web pages are not searchable for narrative, whereas web pages are text-based and easily searched for text.

When the question was called, one member stated that the proposed bill was bad legislation. Another member recognized that the bill may need further adjustment, but expressed appreciation for the committee process and gratitude to the DofA conferees who provided input; she stated that the bill gives Kansas the opportunity to lead in developing transparency in government.

The motion passed.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:56 p.m. No further meeting was scheduled.