On Tuesday, two republican lawmakers filed suit against the state for using one-time revenues to balance the budget. Where does the money come from?
In part “one-time funds” come from program fees. Representative Brett Geymann sits on the House Appropriations Committee.
“For instance you pay a dollar from your driver’s license that goes into a litter abatement fund," Geymann says. "In some cases those funds have a balance. At the end of the year, they haven’t spent all the money.”
Geymann says the legislature used that left over money to patch the holes in the budget left by allocating more money to healthcare and higher education than they had. But to do so, they had to pass House Bill 822. That swept the program funds into the State General Fund.
Two of Geymann’s colleagues think the practice is unconstitutional. Geymann thinks it’s bad policy. He’s been drafting legislation that aims to stop it from happening again.