The House Appropriations and Budget Committee received a lesson Wednesday on revolving funds, more than 500 accounts that include revenue from fees and fines to federal grants.
House Fiscal Director Mark Tygret began Wednesday’s presentations during House Interim Study H14-007, concerning revolving funds, by explaining that the majority of the funds are created by legislation and are considered continuing funds.
That means the money in the accounts is not limited to specific fiscal year expenditures but instead may be spent over a number of years.
Tygret said his office found a total of approximately 550 revolving funds on state ledgers.
Approximately 165 state agencies, board and commissions have at least one revolving fund in their structure, Tygret said.
Nearly 60 of those are for appropriated agencies who rely almost exclusively on the money in their revolving fund to operate, he added.
The revenue sources for revolving funds vary, said Tygret, and include appropriated funds, fines and fees, taxes, donations, grants and federal funds.
Some funds must be used for specific purposes and other money may be used for broad purposes,
State Finance Director Preston Doerflinger called for more oversight saying, "There are some good reasons for having revolving funds, but I think it is important that there is a methodology in place that allows the legislature and my agency to be able to do evaluations of those revolving funds." Some agencies have been accused of sitting on cash surpluses, while asking the legislature for additional funding.
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