Judges: CHRISTINE O. GREGOIRE JAMES K. PHARRIS, Sr. Assistant Attorney General
Filed Date: 3/3/1998
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/6/2016
Honorable Michael J. Murphy State Treasurer Legislative Building P.O. Box 40200 Olympia, Washington 98504-0200
Dear Treasurer Murphy:
By letter previously acknowledged, you have requested the opinion of this office on two questions we have paraphrased as follows:
RCW
43.135.045 (1) requires the Treasurer to deposit in the emergency reserve fund all general fund . . . state revenues in excess of the state expenditure limit for that fiscal year, but provides that deposits shall be made at the end of each fiscal quarter based on projections of state revenues and the state expenditure limit. If the Treasurer deposits funds into the emergency reserve fund in the early part of the fiscal year based on projections of revenue and the state expenditure limit, but later projections or actual numbers reveal that the earlier deposits are in excess of the amount made subject to deposit by RCW43.135.045 (1), does the Treasurer have authority to retransfer the excess back to the state general fund?RCW
43.135.045 (3) provides that if the balance in the emergency reserve fund exceeds five percent of biennial general fund-state revenues as projected by the official state revenue forecast, any balance in excess will be transferred by the Treasurer to the education construction fund. If later changes in the revenue forecast reveal that the amount previously transferred to the education construction fund was actually greater than the amount made subject to transfer by RCW43.135.045 (3), does the Treasurer have authority to retransfer funds to the emergency reserve fund?
If state revenues exceed the expenditure limit, Initiative 601 requires that the extra funds be set aside for a "rainy day" rather than spent. This is accomplished through RCW
As you point out in your letter, "projections" are estimates based upon predictions of future revenue (or, in the case of the expenditure limit, predictions of changes in the fiscal growth factor). If the initial projections of revenue turn out to be higher than the final number, or if the early projections of the expenditure limit turn out to be lower than the final number, the Treasurer runs the risk of "over-depositing" money in the emergency reserve fund. In such a case, the final balance in the state general fund will be lower than the actual expenditure limit for the year, and the balance in the reserve fund will be higher than required. Your question is whether you have authority as Treasurer to withdraw this "over-deposit" from the reserve fund and put it back in the general fund, either "quarter by quarter" as projections change or at the end of the fiscal year when the actual limit is established.
Although the office of State Treasurer is constitutional, the Constitution leaves the Legislature to define the duties of the office by statute. Constitution, art. III, § 19. As a state officer, the Treasurer has only those powers and duties expressly granted by law, or those necessarily implied from the express grants. Yelle v. Bishop,
Nor does Initiative 601 itself contain any language authorizing the Treasurer to withdraw money from the emergency reserve fund or from the education construction fund. On the contrary, subsections (2) and (4) of RCW
However, we note that the statutory language gives your office leeway in deciding how much to transfer from the general fund into the reserve fund in the first place. RCW
Finally, in our opinion, the Legislature could "recapture" any "over-deposit" of monies into the reserve fund through subsequent appropriation or other legislative action without acting inconsistently with Initiative 601. The Initiative sets a limit and directs the Legislature to stay within it. If, because of unpredicted changes in revenues, the Treasurer turns out to have transferred more money out of the general fund than the law requires, the Legislature is still staying within the Initiative's expenditure limit if the amount "over-deposited" is recaptured.
We trust the foregoing will be of assistance to you.
Very truly yours,
CHRISTINE O. GREGOIRE
JAMES K. PHARRIS Sr. Assistant Attorney General