PRESS RELEASE: New Reporting Requirements Ahead for State Funds Held Outside the State Treasury

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 10, 2017

New Reporting Requirements Ahead for State Funds Held
Outside the State Treasury

(AUSTIN) — Most of the state’s revenue passes through the State Treasury. Yet billions more in state funds are held by state agencies and public colleges and universities in accounts outside the Treasury, and can be used without legislative appropriations.

These local funds amounted to at least $7.5 billion at the end of fiscal 2015. We take a closer look at local funds, and recently approved legislation that promises to shed additional light on this area of the state’s finances, in the latest issue of Fiscal Notes.

“These local funds receive comparatively little oversight from lawmakers or scrutiny by the general public,” Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said. “Keeping these local funds outside the Treasury reduces interest income earned by the state’s General Revenue Fund and makes it harder for policymakers to get a true picture of the state’s finances.”

In this issue, we also look at the work of our Treasury Operations Division, which processes checks, collects billions in state receipts, issues warrants to pay state debts, maintains more than 500 state bank accounts and aids the financial operations of about 200 state agencies and institutions.

Fiscal Notes is available online and also can be received by subscribing via the Comptroller’s website.

Fiscal Notes helps promote and further explain the Comptroller’s constitutional responsibility to monitor the state’s economy and estimate state government revenues. It has been published since 1975, featuring in-depth analysis concerning state finances and original research by subject-matter experts in the Comptroller’s office.