What’s all the Fuss about the Fiscal Code?

As of the last few years, if you’ve been following the enactment of the state budget, you’ve likely noticed that the General Appropriations bill and a “Fiscal Code bill” seem to go hand in hand.  But why? What’s all the fuss about the Fiscal Code?

The commonwealth’s Fiscal Code was originally enacted in 1929. Its general scope is to define the powers and duties of the various departments, boards, commissions and row offices as to the collection of taxes and money due to the commonwealth as well as disbursement of commonwealth funds.

Until 2006, the provisions of the Fiscal Code were not specific to how money could be spent in any particular fiscal year; it governed the practice of collecting and spending money generally. However, starting in 2005, the courts issued a series of decisions that changed how the legislature uses the Fiscal Code.

Article III, section 11 of the PA Constitution provides that the GA bill shall contain “nothing but appropriations for the executive, legislative and judicial departments of the commonwealth, for public debt and for public schools”.  Until 2005, if there were strings attached to a line item indicating how the money could be spent or divvied up or directed, that language would appear in the General Appropriations bill.  A series of cases challenged this practice in 2005 and 2006 based on the above constitutional provision, with the court ultimately ruling that “language directing substantive procedures” to be followed by a department has no real place in the General Appropriations bill.

Since substantive language could no longer be added to the General Appropriations bill, the General Assembly needed somewhere to house the legislative jargon which can best be described as the instructions to the budget.  The Fiscal Code, already on the books for nearly a century, seemed to be the most logical place to put it. Since 2006, an additional article for each fiscal year has appeared in the code containing provisions related to budget implementation for that fiscal year.

The language of the Fiscal Code is often as contentious as the numbers in the General Appropriations bill.   Each side of every issue not only has a stake in how much money their project, department or program receives, but in any directive related to that money.  So far, the same seems to be holding true, but since no budget implementation language for 2014-2015 has been added to any Fiscal Code vehicle so far, it’s hard to say for sure. Check back soon; once it is revealed, we’ll provide an overview of its contents.