The Florida Senate

In order to provide an incentive for agencies and the judicial branch to re-engineer business processes and otherwise increase operating efficiency, it is the intent of the Legislature to allow agencies and the judicial branch to retain a portion of the savings produced by internally generated agency or judicial branch program efficiencies and cost reductions.

To be eligible to retain funds, an agency or the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court must submit a plan and an associated request to amend its approved operating budget to the Legislative Budget Commission specifying:

Notwithstanding the 14-day notice requirement contained in s. 216.177(2)(a), all plans and budget amendments submitted to the Legislative Budget Commission pursuant to this section shall be delivered at least 30 days prior to the date of the commission meeting at which the request will be considered.

In determining the amount the agency or the judicial branch will be allowed to retain, the commission shall consider the actual savings projected for the current budget year and the annualized savings.

The amount to be retained by the agency or the judicial branch shall be no less than 5 percent and no more than 25 percent of the annual savings and may be used by the agency or the judicial branch for salary increases or other expenditures specified in the agency’s or the judicial branch’s plan if the salary increases or other expenditures do not create a recurring cost to the state in excess of the recurring savings achieved by the agency or the judicial branch in the plan.

Each agency or judicial branch allowed to retain funds pursuant to this section shall submit in its next legislative budget request a schedule showing how it used such funds.