COBI 2015 - Attorney General Contract

Overview
Issues
Performance
Financials

Sources Uses

FY 2016 Appropriation

ORS contracts with the Office of the Attorney General (AG) for legal services to enforce efforts in the areas of child support and other collections. While on the Attorney General's staff and payroll, these attorneys are considered to be related staff. Forty-one employees are housed in ORS offices. The AG bills ORS monthly based on the actual number of attorneys at ORS and the time they spend on ORS matters.

Funding History

Appropriation Overview

During the 2015 General Session, the Legislature appropriated for Fiscal Year 2016, $4,656,800 from all sources for Attorney General Contract. This is a 5.7 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2015 revised estimated amounts from all sources. The total includes $1,440,700 from the General/Education Funds, an increase of 6.1 percent from revised Fiscal Year 2015 estimates.

Appropriation Adjustments

In addition to statewide compensation and internal service fund cost increases, the following appropriation adjustments were made during the 2015 General Session:

DescriptionOngoingOne-Time Attorney General Dedicated Credit Adjustments$250,500$0

OngoingOne-TimeFinancing Source

$82,700$0General Fund

$167,800$0Federal Funds

This item designates additional funding appropriated to an agency to pay higher costs for Attorney General services, due to statewide and AG-specific compensation increases.

Staff Analysis

For the most recent completed fiscal year, the following information represents the purposes for which the money was used:

Attorney General Contract Detailed Purposes

Number of court appearances

Amount of child support collected by criminal nonsupport staff

Regarding the negative trend greater than 5% in the number of court appearances from the Office of Recovery Services Attorney General Contract program performance measures, the agency states, "The Assistant Attorneys General assigned to ORS have continually worked with ORS to ensure that court appearances are only utilized when absolutely necessary. In the past few years, the child support caseloads continue to increase, while the number of attorneys available has slightly declined. Therefore, the AAGs have been trying new approaches to streamline some of the common legal processes (such as modification and enforcement hearings) to further reduce the number of court appearances necessary. ORS will continue to work with the AGO to ensure that the necessary legal work is being completed, using court appearances only when necessary."

Regarding the negative trend greater than 5% in the amount of child support collected by criminal nonsupport staff from the Office of Recovery Services Attorney General Contract program performance measures, the agency states, "Criminal nonsupport cases and prosecutions are limited to a very small number of cases. Because of the small number of cases, variations in the support amount due and repayment conditions set by the courts result in variations in the yearly collection totals. These variations are expected. ORS will continue to work with the criminal nonsupport attorneys to refer appropriate cases to their program; however, the resulting collections cannot be guaranteed."

Intent Language

SB0002: Item 84

The Legislature intends the Office of Recovery Services report to the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst by September 1, 2015 regarding implementation of 2014 General Session fee increases and a detailed listing of the intended uses of the additional fee revenue with associated amounts.

SB0007S01: Item 29

The Legislature intends that the Department of Human Services report on the following performance measures for the Office of Recovery Services line item: (1) ORS Total Collections (Target = $250 million), (2) Child Support Services Collections (Target = $215 million), and (3) Ratio: ORS Collections to Cost (Target = > 5.9 to 1) by January 1, 2016 to the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee.

Display By:

Funding Source

Expenditure Category

Appropriation Type:

Appropriation History by

Sources of Finance	FY11 Actual	FY12 Actual	FY13 Actual	FY14 Actual	FY15 Approp	FY15 Change	FY15 Revised	FY16 Change	FY16 Approp
General Fund	1,562,500	1,405,700	1,284,700	1,313,700	1,357,700	0	1,357,700	83,000	1,440,700
Federal Funds	2,024,200	2,533,500	2,366,500	2,687,100	2,501,400	316,800	2,818,200	168,300	2,986,500
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act	640,300	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Transfers - Medicaid	131,500	221,500	64,900	68,600	66,400	0	66,400	0	66,400
Transfers - Other Agencies	0	0	0	138,300	0	163,200	163,200	0	163,200
Lapsing Balance	0	0	(700)	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	$4,358,500	$4,160,700	$3,715,400	$4,207,700	$3,925,500	$480,000	$4,405,500	$251,300	$4,656,800

Show Table | Show Additional Information

Categories of Expenditure	FY11 Actual	FY12 Actual	FY13 Actual	FY14 Actual	FY15 Approp	FY15 Change	FY15 Revised	FY16 Change	FY16 Approp
In-state Travel	20,800	18,600	19,600	11,800	0	0	0	0	0
Out-of-state Travel	0	4,300	8,700	100	0	0	0	0	0
Current Expense	4,206,000	4,049,900	3,598,800	4,161,600	3,924,300	481,200	4,405,500	250,500	4,656,000
DP Current Expense	131,700	87,900	88,300	35,600	1,200	(1,200)	0	800	800
Total	$4,358,500	$4,160,700	$3,715,400	$4,209,100	$3,925,500	$480,000	$4,405,500	$251,300	$4,656,800

COBI contains unaudited data as presented to the Legislature by state agencies at the time of publication. For audited financial data see the State of Utah's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.