ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Fifty-seventh Legislature

First Regular Session

House: APPROP DPA 11-6-0-1

HB 2919: state budget; structural balance; estimates

Sponsor: Representative Olson, LD 10

Caucus & COW

Overview

Requires the General Appropriation Act to be balanced for each fiscal year (FY). Prohibits the deferral of the basic state aid and additional state aid payments to school districts (K-12 rollover).

History

The Arizona Legislature adopts a budget for each FY that contains general appropriations. Article IV, Section 20, Part 2 of the Arizona Constitution requires the General Appropriation Act to contain only appropriations for the different state departments, state institutions, public schools and interest on public debt.

The General Appropriation Act must include a provision that outlines the revenue and expenditure estimates for the following three years. The expenditure estimates must be based on existing statutory funding requirements (A.R.S. § 35-125).

The format of the appropriations for the support and maintenance of state departments and institutions must be for each FY for all budget units (A.R.S. § 35-121).

For the ongoing K-12 rollover, the FY 2025 General Appropriation Act advance appropriates $800,727,700 from the State General Fund (GF) in FY 2026 to fund the $800,727,700 deferred obligation from FY 2025. The funding deferral does not apply to charter schools or to school districts with a student count of less than 4,000.

Provisions

1. Requires the General Appropriation Act and its expenditure estimates to be balanced for each FY. (Sec. 2)

2. Specifies that the General Appropriation Act and its expenditure estimates are balanced if the unreserved State GF beginning balance, together with the GF revenue estimate for that FY, is greater than or equal to that FY's GF expenditure estimate. (Sec. 2)

3. Requires the expenditure estimates to recognize any spending authorized in the budget year that was also approved in the prior FY as ongoing spending to calculate the structural balance of the FY. (Sec. 2)

4. Requires, for each FY, the format of the appropriations for the support and maintenance of the Arizona Department of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to recognize the basic state aid and additional state aid entitlement paid to school districts in the same FY as the FY that the school district's budget capacity recognizes the state aid. (Sec. 1)

Amendments

Committee on Appropriations

1. Lowers the K-12 rollover payment owed to each school district in FY 2026 by the school district's total ending cash balances as of June 30, 2024, from the school district's maintenance and operations fund or unrestricted capital outlay fund as reported in the school district's FY 2024 annual financial report that was not included in the school district's FY 2025 adopted budget.

2. Allows the Governing Board of a school district to use any portion of the school district's total ending cash balances as of June 30, 2024, from the school district's maintenance and operations fund or unrestricted capital outlay fund as reported in the school district's FY 2024 annual financial report that was not included in the school district's FY 2025 adopted budget to replace any revenue from the reduced K-12 rollover payment.

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6. HB 2919

7. Initials JB Page 0 Caucus & COW

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