State Board of Elections

The enacted budget makes the following changes to the Executive Budget (analysis as of March 30, 2012):

·        The enacted budget makes no changes to the Executive Budget All Funds, state operations, appropriation proposal of $5.3 million.

·        Rejects the broad Executive Budget proposal to allow the Executive to have unlimited transfer and interchange authority over all State Operations appropriations. Instead it creates specific transfer and interchange authorization for State Operation appropriations, for this agency they include: OGS/Back Office, Call Center, and Information Technology.  In general this authorization allows the Executive to move appropriations between state agencies for these purposes. For additional detail please see page 5 of the Summary of the SFY 2012-13 Enacted Budget memo.

The Executive Budget recommends (analysis as of January 25, 2012):

A SFY 2011-12 workforce of 58, which maintains the level of FTEs from the adjusted FTE level for SFY 2010-11. The adjusted FTE level for 2011-12 is a decrease of 2 FTEs from the level projected in last year’s budget.

The following chart identifies adjustments in the current fiscal year’s FTEs along with the recommended differences in FY 2011-12 FTEs by program. 

·        An All Funds appropriation of $5.3 million, a $7.2 million (-57.6%) decrease from the enacted appropriation of SFY 2011-12.  $7 million of this decrease reflects the absence of new federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funding.  Federal funds continue to be available through HAVA reappropriations to both the counties and the State to meet HAVA mandates. The remaining decrease of $216,000 reflects the Board's planned move from leased to State-owned office space

·        A Personal Services appropriation of $4.1 million, an increase of $401,000 (10.7%) from the enacted appropriation of SFY 2011-12.

·        A Contractual Services appropriation of $933,000, a reduction of $1.2 million (-57.6%) from the enacted appropriation of SFY 2011-12.

·        The State Board of Elections employed an estimated 5 FTEs under consultant contracts in SFY 2011-12 at a cost of $2.45 million or $490,000 per consultant.  It is estimated that the agency will keep the same number of FTE consultant employees at a cost of $1.5 million in SFY 2012-13 or $300,000. The expenditures may include more than personal service costs and is inconsistent with Office of State Comptroller data on consultant spending so it is difficult to draw conclusions as to the cost per consultant employee.