HD75 - Statewide Staffing Standards for the Funding of Financial Officers
Executive Summary: Item 13 of the 1988 and 1989 Appropriations Acts directed JLARC to review staffing standards and funding for constitutional officers in Virginia. This report, the fifth in a series, addresses staffing standards for financial officers: commissioners of revenue, treasurers, and directors of finance. Other reports in the series address staffing standards for sheriffs, Commonwealth's attorneys, and clerks of court. The last report in the series addresses issues related to the finding of the constitutional offices. The staffing standards for financial officers developed for this report are based on measures of workload that have clear relationships to the staffing of the offices. The measures used include locality population and various measures of the workload for tax assessments and revenue collection. The proposed standards can be used by the Compensation Board to more equitably allocate positions statewide. Application of these standards results in a statewide increase of 905 positions over the current Compensation Board-recognized positions. If the Department of Taxation provided all State income tax processing, and financial officers provided State income taxpayer assistance only, then the increase would be reduced to 542 recognized positions. The issues involved in allocating positions to the constitutional officers are complex. Therefore, it will be necessary to review the proposed standards in more detail with the General Assembly, the State Compensation Board, the constitutional officers, and local governments. To begin that process of review, Senate Bill 248 was introduced in the 1990 Session of the General Assembly. This legislation, which puts into effect a new funding method, can be the starting point for discussions on the staff proposals. |