Joint Fiscal Office ordered to produce multi-year special-fund reports stretching to 2029

The House Appropriations Committee voted to require the Joint Fiscal Office, in consultation with the Department of Finance and Management and Legislative Council, to produce a multi-year set of special-fund reports that will make fund-level information more accessible.

Grady Nixon said the first report, due Dec. 15, 2026, will provide a broad overview of special funds and how they operate; subsequent, more detailed reports are due on Dec. 15 in 2027, 2028 and 2029 and will break funds into government function categories (for example, human services and natural resources). Nixon and staff estimated each annual report will document roughly 90–110 special funds so that over four years the state’s more than 400 special funds will be described in searchable detail.

The reports must include the authorizing statute (with enactment date and amendments), revenue sources, stated expenditure purposes, prior-year fund balances at closeout and other oversight and management information. Legislative Council assistance will be used to trace statutory history where needed.

Why it matters: advocates and legislators have long complained that special-fund information is hard to find and often not aggregated in a usable form. Committee members said the rollout is designed to produce a searchable, standardized dataset that will aid oversight and reduce duplication of effort.

Next step: Joint Fiscal will prepare the initial report by Dec. 15, 2026, and follow the agreed four-year cadence for deeper sectoral reports.