SB 126

Enacts new GS 143C-3-3.1 (zero-based budgeting estimates) providing, as follows. Defines zero-based budget as a budget that reflects the amount of funding deemed necessary to achieve the most cost-effective performance of a State agency pursuant to an accompanying narrative delineating the tasks to be performed by the State agency together with the goals and objectives for the State agency for a period not to exceed two years. The budget must have a zero dollar amount as its basis and cannot not reflect any prior appropriation amount, adjusted or otherwise. Starting with the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025, and each even-numbered year thereafter, requires that each State agency of the executive branch designated in a scheduled year prepare and submit to the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) a zero-budget plan for the fiscal biennium beginning July 1 of the following fiscal year. Sets forth a submission schedule that divides agencies or specified agency divisions into four groups with submission dates of 2025, 2027, 2029, and 2031 respectively, with subsequent submissions every eight years after each initial submission date. Lists six required pieces of information that each agency’s zero-budget plan must contain, including descriptions and justifications for agency activities; quantifiable program outcomes; an accounting of expenditures required to maintain the activity at minimum levels of service/current levels of service and adverse impacts for each activity; and a ranking of all activities. Excludes statutory appropriations under GS 143C-1-1(d) from zero-based budgeting plans.