State government efficiencies.

ORIGINAL
Senate
ENGROSSED
File No
.
SF0156

ENROLLED ACT NO. 91,

SENATE

SIXTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WYOMING
2017 General Session

AN ACT relating to administration of government; creating the Wyoming spending and government efficiency commission; requiring reports; providing appropriations; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.

(a)

The Wyoming
spending and
government
efficiency
commission is created to review issues related to
efficiencies in Wyoming state government
. The commission shall consist of not more than six (6) member
s.
Three (3) members shall be appointed by the management council of the legislature of whom one (1) s
hall be from the private sector
and one (1) each from the senate and house of representatives. Two (2) members shall be appointed by the governor, of whom one (1) sha
ll be from the private sector.
One (1) member shall be appointed by the chief justice of the Wyoming supreme court bu
t shall be a nonvoting member.
No
voting
member of the commission shall be a
full-time
state employee.
The commission shall elect a chairman from among its two (2) legislative members.

(b)

Members who are not legislators shall receive per diem and travel expenses in the same manner and amount provided under W.S. 28
‑
5
‑
101.

(c)

The commission shall meet
at the call of the chairman or the governor as necessary to complete the duties specified by this section.

(d)

The commission shall:

(i)

Review the current configuration of the Wyoming state government and the duties and responsibilities of state agencies including identifying any potential areas of overlap and any
programs that have accomplished their original objective or have otherwise become obsolete
;

(ii)

Identify current opportunities for increasing efficiency and reducing costs through executive action or legislation;

(iii)

Identify areas for further study, including a recommendation of specific areas with a high l
ikelihood for potential savings;

(iv)

Consider development and implementation of a program to incentivize the identification of potential efficiencies by state employees
;

(
v)

Review the plans provided under W.S. 28
‑
1
‑
115(a)(ii) for any state agency expending more than twenty million dollars ($20,000,000.00) in a biennium;

(v
i
)

Examine the opportunities for savings in the Medicaid program subject to the following:

(A)

The examination shall determine the error rates in Medicaid enrollment through the Medicaid eligibility system, error rates in continuing enrollment in Medicaid and the costs of these error rates;

(B)

The
c
ommission is authorized to cause an audit of a sample of Medicaid enrollees to determine the error rates in enrollment and continued enrollment and the potential savings from correcting the error rates. The
audit may be done by state personnel or through a contract with a private firm, or both;

(C)

The examination shall include a review of the Medicaid system to detect and correct errors in billing for Medicaid services;

(D)

The examination shall include an inquiry concerning how the Medicaid program could reduce expenditures by reducing unneeded utilization of Medicaid services.

(e)

The commission shall report the results of the review under this section and any recommendations to the governor
,
the management council of the legislature
and the joint appropriations committee
not later than November 30, 2017
. Recommendations under this subsection may include:

(i)

Legislation necessary to implement current opportunities for increasing efficiency and reducing costs in state government;

(ii)

Recommendations to continue the commission for additional review of issues related to efficiencies in Wyoming state government
or to assign review to another group
;

(iii)

Opportunities related to the use of consulting services to assess the operations of state government in order to increase savings, provide operational efficiencies and maximize state revenues including identifying the amount of annual savings that could be achieved.

(f)

The
governor, in consultation with the commission,
may
contract with such experts as necessary to fulfill
the commission's
duties under this act.

Prior to entering into any contract pursuant to this section, the commission shall report to the joint appropriations committee on the following:

(i) An estimation of the amount of cost savings and operational efficiencies that could be achieved in areas identified in the report required by this section by contracting with the entity.

(
g
)

The commission shall exist until December 31, 2017.

Section 2
.

The members of the commission shall be appointed not less than thirty (30) days after the effective date of this act.

Section 3.

(a)

There is appropriated seven thousand eight hundred dollars ($7,800.00) from the legislative stabilization reserve account to the legislative service office. This appropriation shall be for the period beginning with the effective date of this act and ending June 30, 2018. This appropriation shall only be expended for the purpose of providing reimbursement for members of the Wyoming spending and government efficiency commission appointed by the management council. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, this appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose and any unexpended, unobligated funds remaining from this appropriation shall revert as provided by law on June 30, 2018.

(b)

There is appropriated three thousand two hundred dollars ($3,200.00) from the
legislative stabilization reserve account
to the governor's office. This appropriation shall be for the period beginning with the effective date of this act and ending June 30, 2018. This appropriation shall only be expended for the purpose of providing reimbursement for members of the Wyoming spending and government efficiency commission appointed by the governor. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, this appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose and any unexpended, unobligated funds remaining from this appropriation shall revert as provided by law on June 30, 2018.

(c)

There is appropriated
up to three
hundred thousand dollars ($
3
00,000.00) from the legislative stabilization reserve account to the governor's office
for purposes of this act
. This appropriation may be expended by the governor to secure contracting to implement and realize cost savings and efficiencies in areas identified in the report by the commission under section 1 of this act.

Any contract entered into pursuant to this subsection shall be solicited through a competitive process and subject to standard procurement procedures.

Section 4
.

This act is effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.

(END)

Speaker of the House

President of the Senate

Governor

TIME APPROVED: _________

DATE APPROVED: _________

I hereby certify that this act originated in the
Senate
.

Chief Clerk

1