3:>51.722 MONTANASTATELIBRARY L179931Lf a SSi3i5-1mo7n2th2Lr7ep3oUrta|1ol99t1heCo.1peCroathieoansott STATE OF MONTAf 3 o864 00073855 2 '<-)jjic£. of tks J-£.^ii.LatLuE LTiicaL c:rf-na.LLji.t STATE CAPITOL HELENA. MONTANA 59620 406/444-2986 TERESA OLCOTT LEGISLATIVE FISCAL^S^sP9CUWie«TS COLLECTION OCT 2 3 1991 June 14, 1991 MONTANA STATE LIBRARY 1515 E. 6th AVE. HELENA, MONTANA 59620 TO: Legislative Finance Committee FROM: Teresa Olcott Cohea /i^ Legislative Fiscal Analyst SUBJECT: Six-month Report Following is the second in a series of reports designed to keep the committee informed of the operations of the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst. This report covers the period January 1 through June 6, 1991. Reversions The office will revert approximately $150,000 general fund at the end of fiscal 1991. Combined with our fiscal 1990 reversion of $82,000, we will revert over three times as much as the $73,351 "reversion target" for the biennium requested by the Office of Budget and Program Planning. As the attached table shows, the reversion from the general appropriation for the office will be about $50,000, or 5.9 percent. The only category in which spending exceeded the budgeted amount was computer services. Mainframe charges for the electronic budgeting system and legislative requests for tax simulations exceeded the budgeted amount ($30,000) by over $13,000. However, we were able to cover these higher- than-anticipated costs by savings in travel and other operating costs. The legislature approved an additional $20,000 for the 1993 biennium for computer ' ;r-- -:. :> j\./ lia. i; » K "-.f • costs related to legislative requests. We have also implemented some new internal procedures to control costs. In addition to the $50,000 reversion from the general office budget, there are significant balances in several line-item appropriations, totalling over $100,000. These balances will revert to the general fund on June 30, 1991. Legislative Requests During the 1991 legislative session, the staff answered 251 legislative requests. This total does not include requests made by appropriation subcommittees; the Appropriation, Finance and Claims, and other committees; or pay plan calculations. Legislative requests ranged from requests for easily-gathered data to in-depth analyses of topics before the legislature. The number of legislative requests during the 1991 session was 67 percent higher than during the 1989 session (150). The requests closely mirror the composition of the legislature. Republicans, who comprise 40 percent of the legislature, made 38.2 percent of the requests. Democrats, who comprise 60 percent of the legislature, made 61.8 percent of the requests. Representatives, who comprise 67 percent of the legislature, made 70.5 percent of the requests, while senators (who comprise 33 percent of the legislature) made 29.5 percent of the requests. Reports to the Legislature During this six-month period, the office issued the following major reports: 1) the 758-page Budget Analysis ; Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Montana State Library http://www.archive.org/details/sixmonthrepo199114cohe 2) the 613-page agency narrative that accompanied House Bill 2 from the Appropriation Committee through the Senate floor action (this narrative was revised and reissued three times); and 3) the 975-page Appropriation Report . In addition, during the legislative session we prepared 16 general fund status reports, showing action to date on appropriation and tax bills. Compensatory Time During the budget analysis period and the legislative session (October through April), the 14 professional staff in the office worked 7,539 extra hours. These extra work hours averaged 538.5 hours per staff member beyond the normal 40 hour work week. This is substantially more extra hours worked than professional staff in other legislative agencies, as table 1 shows. Table 1 Extra Hours Worked October 1, 1990 - April 30, 1991 Total Extra N0. of Prof. Average Agency Hours Staff Hour/Staff LFA 7,539 14 538.5 EQC 1,465 5 293.0 Leg. Council 5,344 24 222.7 Consumer 565 4 141.3 Counsel Leg. Auditor 4,555 50 91.1 After deducting the 170 hours provided under committee rules, the LFA staff was awarded 5,331 hours of compensatory time. Staff will use the majority of this leave time during this summer. TC2A.mb.LFC6-6.MEM iS » FY 1991 Budget and Estimated Reversions BUDGET FY 1991 BALANCE % FY91 PROJECTIONS REMAINING Exp. PERSONAL SERVICES $686,041 $645,260 $40,781 94.06% CONTRACT SERVICES $66,922 $79,576 ($12,654) 118.91% SUPPLIES $15,000 $12,785 $2,215 85.23% COMMUNICATIONS $10,464 $9,258 $1,206 88.47% TRAVEL $21,666 $10,233 $11,433 47.23% RENT $10,316 $10,284 $32 99.69% REPAIRS $11,896 $8,648 $3,248 72.70% OTHER $6,935 $3,120 $3,815 44.99% TOTAL OP EXPENSE $143,199 $133,904 $9,295 93.51% EQUIPMENT $40,297 $39,123 $1,174 97.09% TOTALS $869,537 $818,287 $51,250 94.11% BIENNIUM APPROPRIATION BALANCES BUDGET FISCAL 1991 BALANCE FY90 EXPENDITURES REMAINING » Consultant $20,000.00 $1,230.00 $18,770.00 Post-Secondary Education $57,473.00 2,624.00 $54,849.00 Intern Analyst $12,675.00 12,675.00 $0.00 Committee Meeting Days $13,600.00 0.00 $13,600.00 Data Processing $15,000.00 0.00 $15,000.00 TOTALS $118,748.00 $16,529.00 $102,219.00 I il