Tennessee Code 3-2-107 – Fiscal notes for revenue bills – Cumulative fiscal notes during session – Comparison of actual fiscal impact – Written summary
Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) Fiscal notes shall be provided for all general bills or resolutions increasing or decreasing state or local revenues, making sum-sufficient appropriations, or increasing or decreasing existing appropriations or the fiscal liability of the state or of the local governments of the state. Upon a standing committee of either house placing such bill or resolution on the committee’s calendar for action, the fiscal review committee shall furnish to the chief clerk of the house or houses of introduction a statement of analysis of the fiscal effect of such bill or resolution and shall prepare and distribute copies of the statement to members of the general assembly. Within twenty-four (24) hours following a request by the sponsor of an amendment to any pending measure on which a fiscal note is required by this section, the fiscal review committee shall prepare for the sponsor a fiscal note showing what effect the amendment would have on the estimates made in the fiscal note which applies to the bill or resolution. In regard to any bill or resolution affecting local government, the office of the comptroller of the treasury is directed to provide to the fiscal review committee, upon request, the information necessary to determine the fiscal effect of such bill or resolution.(2)(A) The fiscal note shall, if possible, include an estimate in dollars of the anticipated change in revenue, expenditures, or fiscal liability under the provisions of the bill or resolution. It shall also include a statement as to the immediate effect and, if determinable or reasonably foreseeable, the long-range effect of the measure. If, after careful investigation, it is determined that no dollar estimate is possible, the note shall contain a statement to that effect, setting forth the reasons why no dollar estimate can be given. The fiscal note statement shall include an explanation of the basis or reasoning on which the estimate is founded, including any assumptions involved.(B)(i) The fiscal note shall also include a statement as to the immediate effect and, if determinable or reasonably foreseeable, the long-range effect on commerce and jobs in this state. Such impact to commerce statement shall also include, if possible, an estimate in dollars of the anticipated change in costs or savings to commerce under the bill or resolution.(ii) Beginning January 1, 2014, impact to commerce statements shall be required for general bills or resolutions referred to the following standing committees:
(a) Commerce committee of the house of representatives;(b) Insurance committee of the house of representatives; and(c) Commerce and labor committee of the senate.(3) No comment or opinion shall be included in the fiscal note regarding the merits of the measure for which the note is prepared; however, technical or mechanical defects may be noted.(b) A cumulative fiscal note shall be prepared weekly by the fiscal review committee and a copy shall be distributed to each member of the general assembly each week while the general assembly is in session. The cumulative fiscal note shall show the cumulative increase or decrease of revenue or expenditures as caused by legislation enacted from the beginning of the session then convened.(c)(1) Within ninety (90) days after the conclusion of each annual regular legislative session, the fiscal review committee staff shall select a fair and representative sample of at least five (5) public chapters enacted within the preceding five (5) years and compare the actual fiscal impact of each public chapter to the fiscal impact as stated in the cumulative fiscal note.(2) Upon completing the review, the fiscal review committee staff shall present the results of this review to the fiscal review committee at a meeting of the committee. The committee may also invite testimony from other witnesses, including representatives of executive departments and agencies affected by the bill. A written summary of the results of such review shall be provided to each member of the general assembly each year.
