BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
400 (De Leon)
Hearing Date: 07/06/2009 Amended: 06/15/2009
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: G.O. 12-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 400 requires the Financial Information System
for California (FISCal) to list general fund and federal fund
expenditures, as specified, of $5,000 or greater on a public
website, and to update the information annually. This bill would
make an appropriation by requiring the expenditure of
continuously appropriated funds for a new purpose.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Adds requirement to FISCal Very minor and absorbable by
project General
Special*
*All departments will participate in a FISCal share of cost,
which draws on general and special funds.
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STAFF COMMENTS: Upon its completion, FISCal will be an
information technology system used by all state departments to
manage information in the areas of budgeting, accounting,
procurement, cash management, financial management, financial
reporting, cost accounting, asset management, project
accounting, grant management and human resources management.
This project is still in the planning stages. No system has been
procured, and a vendor for the project has not yet been
selected. Project executives estimate that a contract will be
awarded to a vendor in fiscal year 2011-12.
Project vision statements reflect goals for a transparency
component to FISCal. More specific planning documents indicate
that the system is intended to contain a functionality that
would allow the public to access financial information (not
otherwise confidential or prohibited) about the budgeting,
contracts, and procurement records of state departments. Because
FISCal is still in its planning stage, the system requirements
are not sufficiently specific as to stipulate a web-based
interface that allows the public to access expenditures over
$5,000, as this bill directs. The FISCal department and steering
committee, however, have outlined 3,000 draft requirements, and
this bill would add (or arguably clarify) one more.
Project executives indicate that the requirements of this bill
are consistent with their plans for a web-enabled public access
feature. The information that the bill requires be displayed
would already exist in FISCal, and the system could easily be
built to filter the information for public access to this bill's
specifications. Because the project is in the planning stages,
and will be bid on by vendors as a single system created to
address all needs detailed by the steering committee, it is
impossible to determine the cost of one minor component to a
nearly $2 billion system.
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AB 400 (De Leon)
When the FISCal concept and budget appropriation was approved,
it gave considerable flexibility to the steering committee and
project executives to create a very technical system that would
address broad needs of the state, with very limited legislative
oversight over the multitude of specific system requirements.
The legislature approved a vision, rather than requiring
approval for every aspect of the system interface. Considering
the scope of the FISCal system and project authority, it is
likely the steering committee could adopt the requirements of
this bill without specific legislative approval. Moreover,
project executives have indicated that this bill will not
restrict their current plans for the system. The requirements of
this bill are unlikely to incur any new, measurable costs to the
state.