State

April 28, 1934 THE STATE Page Eleven FAGTS ABOUT OUR STATE GOVERNMENT No. 22 — The Budget Bureau (This is the twenty-second of a series of articles appearing in The State devoted to describing the his¬ tory and activities of the various de¬ partments of North Carolina's state government.) By W. J. SADLER ★ One of the most important agencies of the state government of North Carolina is the Budget Bureau, which has been in operation nine years, and which supervises all state expenditures. While the Governor, as Director, is the nominal head of the Bureau, the actual duties of the office are per¬ formed by an Assistant Director. The Budget Bureau was created by the General Assembly of 1925 during the administration of Governor A. W. McLean. The first Assistant Director was Tlenry Burke, who held the office eight years, resigning in 1933. He was regarded ns an exceedingly efficient man for the post. His successor, who is also considered an admirable execu¬ tive, was Frank Dunlap, of Wades* boro. Mr. Dunlap is a former mem¬ ber of the General Assembly, and also has served as Director of Personnel. Within the Budget Bureau is what is termed the Advisory Budget Com¬ mission, which consists of the Chair¬ men of the Finance and Appropriation Committees of both houses of the Gen¬ eral Assembly and two additional mem¬ bers who are appointed by the Gover¬ nor. The Governor is ex-officio Direc¬ tor of the Budget and the Budget Bu¬ reau is a part of and set up under the office of the Governor. In order that the duties of the Bu¬ reau may be more clearly understood it might be well to know that prior to the creation of the Bureau no agency of government existed which exercised any control over expendi¬ tures. The various agencies of Gov¬ ernment appeared before the General Assembly and were appropriated moneys and after such appropriation the agency could use the appropria¬ tion for such lawful purposes as it might see fit. Within the limited pe¬ riod of time in which the General As¬ sembly was in session no opportunity FRANK DUNLAP - ★ - existed for that body to study the de¬ tailed needs of each agency. The result was that one agency had plenty and another almost nothing with respect to its needs. One agency lived in affluence and another was on a starvation basis. One system of sal¬ ary payments existed in one agency and another in another, without re¬ gard to duties or responsibility, or any particular relativity to the actual labor performed. What were consid¬ ered necessities in one agency were luxuries in another. To provide a method whereby each succeeding General Assembly might have information upon which it could intelligently act through knowledge of the detailed needs of each agency, the Bureau was created and the Advisory Budget Commission directed to make reports as to the needs of each agency in an itemized form, so that the amount of the appropriation could be intelligently determined. Each Gen¬ eral Assembly at all times retains the right to increase or decrease the recom¬ mended appropriations, as it might de¬ termine to be proper. The Advisory Budget Commission was further directed not only to recom¬ mend suitable itemized appropriations for the various agencies of Govern¬ ment, but was also charged with the duty of recommending to the incoming General Assembly a tax bill which would raise sufficient moneys by tax¬ ation to meet the recommended appro¬ priations. The performance of these two functions gave to the incoming General Assembly a starting point from which it could proceed in cither direction it might elect, both the sug¬ gested appropriation and the suggested forms of taxation being only tentative. In order that these duties be carried out the Advisory Budget Commission meets at various times and hears re¬ quests upon the various matters in¬ volved, seeking to determine the rela¬ tive needs of all agencies and construct an itemized list of the needs as it may consider the same to be necessary. After the General Assembly acts and appropriates moneys such appro¬ priations arc made available to the agencies by allotments in regular man¬ ner by what is called quarterly allot¬ ments. These quarterly allotments are not made in equal proportions because the needs of the agencies vary from time to time and in one quarter might need twice as much money as in an¬ other, experience in expenditure gives acquaintance to the varying necessi¬ ties. Some appropriations are made available by what is termed specific allotment, such allotment being made more particularly for permanent im¬ provements and what is termed addi¬ tions and betterments. Many agencies of government have large sums available for its use through what is termed receipts, which must be expended before any sums are avail¬ able from appropriations. These re¬ ceipts play a large part in allotments, ns such receipts are impossible to be accurately determined and extraordi¬ nary demands may be made as re¬ ceipts may appear. Sometimes receipts are in excess of expectations and at others they fail to be realized. The various agencies of government make both monthly and quarterly re¬ port of their expenditures, and by these reports the Bureau is able to deter¬ mine the position of such agencies in spending, and by reports from other sources determine the development of tax collections so that the spending and collecting can be kept in balance. The Budget Bureau is also charged with many other duties, such as in¬ spection of plants of institutions with (Continued on page twenty)