DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part of the
legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute part of the law
or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HB 298 Original 2016 Regular Session Ivey
Abstract: Requires the state treasurer to establish and maintain "Louisiana Checkbook", a
Louisiana fiscal transparency website as a source of information for state expenditures.
Proposed law requires the state treasurer to establish and maintain a Louisiana fiscal transparency
website as a source of information for state expenditures named "Louisiana Checkbook".
Proposed law requires state agencies to provide information to the treasurer and further requires that
the costs of the website be distributed among the state agencies on a pro rata share of their total
appropriations in the fiscal year in which costs are incurred.
Proposed law requires the website to include the following information:
(1) A searchable database of all state expenditures reported by state agencies.
(2) Ability to search and aggregate expenditures by state agency, category of expense, and
vendor or contractor.
(3) Ability to download information from the website.
Proposed law further requires the reporting of the following for each expenditure by a state agency:
(1) The amount of the expenditure.
(2) The date of the payment of the expenditure.
(3) The vendor or contractor to which the expenditure was paid.
(4) The state agency that made the expenditure, including the name, phone number, electronic
mail address, and physical address of an agency contact.
Proposed law requires the legislative auditor to do periodic and unscheduled audits of each state
agency for the purpose of determining if the agency is in compliance with proposed law. Further
requires the auditor to report any state agencies that are not in compliance to the Joint Legislative
Committee on the Budget and the state treasurer.
Proposed law also requires that if the legislative auditor determines that expenditures were negligently omitted from reporting to the treasurer, a penalty of $500 per omission, not to exceed
$10,000 per agency per audit shall be assessed. Further requires any fines collected to be available
for the legislative auditor for the audit costs.
Proposed law requires that if an agency does not report expenditure information to the treasurer in
three consecutive months, the treasurer is authorized and directed to withhold 15% of any warrants
drawn on the state treasury by the agency until the agency reports the information.
Effective upon signature of governor or lapse of time for gubernatorial action.
(Adds R.S. 39:440-443)