2021-07705. Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; State and Local Government Finance and Public Employment and Payroll Forms

The Department of Commerce will submit the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the Federal Register on January 27, 2021 during a 60-day comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.

Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.

Title: State and Local Government Finance and Public Employment and Payroll Forms.

OMB Control Number: 0607-0585.

Form Number(s): E-1, E-2, E-3, E-4, E-5, E-6, E-7, E-8, E-9, E-10, F-5, F-11, F-12, F-13, F-28, F-29, F-32.

Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for a Revision of a Currently Approved Collection.

Number of Respondents: 73,140.

Average Hours per Response: 1 hour and 41 minutes.

Burden Hours: 123,273.

Needs and Uses: The Census Bureau requests OMB approval to conduct the 2021 and 2023 Annual Surveys of State and Local Government Finances, Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll and the 2022 Census of Governments—Finance and Employment. We also request approval to add the collection of cannabis sales and license taxes, and sports betting sales taxes to the Annual Survey of State Tax Collections (F-5), a component of the Annual Surveys of State and Local Government Finances. This will modernize the survey's content to maintain the relevancy and sustainability of these data.

The data are released as part of the State and Local Government Finance and Public Employment & Payroll statistical series. The collections also produce individual data products that focus on state governments, local governments, and public pensions in greater detail than the combined financial and employment series as a by-product of their collections for the combined data series. The Census Bureau provides these data to the Bureau of Economic Analysis to develop the public sector components of the National Income and Product Accounts and for constructing the functional payrolls in the public sector of the Gross Domestic Product, payroll being the single largest component of current operations. The Census Bureau also provides these data to the Federal Reserve Board for use in the Flow of Funds Accounts. Other Federal agencies that make use of the data include the Council of Economic Advisers, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Government Accountability Office, and the Department of Justice. State and local governments and related organizations, public policy groups, public interest groups, private research organizations, and private sector businesses also use these data.

Affected Public: State, Local, or Tribal government.

Frequency: Annually.

Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.

Legal Authority: Title 13, Section 161, of the United States Code requires the Secretary of Commerce to conduct a census of governments every fifth year. Section 182 allows the Secretary of Commerce to conduct annual surveys in other years.

This information collection request may be viewed at www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB Control Number 0607-0585.

Sheleen Dumas,

Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Commerce Department.