Funding of Constitutional Officers - Virginia Joint Legislative Audit ...

the constitutional offispecific
evaluation criteria for
ma!kinlCl each grant; or (2) a formula process,
based on workload and staffing data
which can be demonstrated to be related to
non-personnel costs. Any revised process
for funding non-personnel costs should
recognize the ability of localities to pay for
Tax Equity
Once the costs of services provided
by the constitutional officers have been calvl.nCUlJ'U,
it is necessary to determine the
extent to which the State will pay for such
costs, and what portion of costs local governments
will be expected to fund. In
determining how the State and local governments
will share the costs for constitutional
officers, it is important that localities
be treated fairly. This is the goal of tax
equity.
The State can ensure equity by fully
funding State-mandated costs and by systematically
recognizing the relative abilities
of local governments to pay for costs which
are their responsibility. These goals can
be accomplished by determining: (1) for
each service provided, whether the cost responsibility
should be assigned to the State,
assigned to the localities, or shared between
the State and localities; (2) how to
treat costs that are shared between the
State and localities, including how local
financial ability could be taken into account;
and (3) how to treat revenues collected by
constitutional officers that may offset costs.
~c(~inrlinn ~h!:lI"Q~ t ....rtha costs, the
was that the level
of government
a
should pay for the in those situations
in which both the the local
goverments mandate or the service,
the costs should be shared based on
the relative benefits that the State and localities
receive. This general approach is
applied to the services provided by constitutional
officers by evaluating criteria:
• Is there a clear State requirement or
request for the service to be provided?
• Is the service either recognized by
the State as a part normal
local government operation, or generally
prOVided at the request of
local government officials?
For those services which the costs
are to be shared by the State and the
localities, it is necessary determine how
the costs will be divided between them.
Establishing the proportions of State and
local costs involves two steps. The first
step is to determine the relative benefits
which the State and localities derive from
the services. The second step is to measure
the extent to which each locality has
the ability to pay for its share of the costs.
Relative Benefits of Services. The
State and local benefits from constitutional
officer services can be used to help establish
the responsibility that each has for the
shared costs. For some service categories,
relative benefits can be objectively
measured, and the resulting proportions of
State and local benefits can be used to
establish the shares of cost responsibility.
For some other service categories, however,
the State and local shares cannot be
based on objectively
criteria.
These cost responsibility
must
be made on the
ing the relative hOI'lotit~
on the basis