Focus Report, Volume 87, Number 1, March 2021 Page: FRONT COVER
12 p. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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h`8, 2021 No. 87-1
E
.NCEInitial budget
developmentWriting and passing a
biennial budget 2
General appropriations
bill 4
Legislative action 5
Action after final passage 7
Interim budget action 7
Restrictions on spending 8HRO
Writing the state budget
Writing a budget is one of the Texas Legislature's main tasks. The state's budget is written
and implemented in a two-year cycle that includes development of the budget, passage of the
general appropriations act, actions by the comptroller and governor, and interim monitoring.
During the 2021 regular session, the 87th Legislature will consider a budget for fiscal 2022-
23, the two-year period from September 1, 2021, through August 31, 2023.
Initial budget development
Developing the budget begins with state agencies receiving instructions for submitting
budget requests. Agencies then submit their budget proposals, and hearings are held on
their requests. Next, the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) adopts a growth rate that limits
appropriations, the comptroller issues an estimate of available revenue, and preliminary
budgets are drafted.
Pre-session budget instructions and hearings. State agencies are required in even-
numbered years to develop five-year strategic plans (Government Code sec. 2056.002) that
include agency goals, strategies for accomplishing those goals, and performance measures.
Before a regular legislative session begins, agencies submit funding requests to the governor's
budget office and the LBB. These requests are called Legislative Appropriations Requests, or
LARs. The LARs have two parts: the base-level request and requests for exceptional items
beyond the baseline.
In August 2020, state agencies were instructed to submit spending requests with base
funding equal to their adjusted fiscal 2020-21 base. Some agencies had their fiscal 2020-21
base funding adjusted after the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the House asked
state agencies and institutions of higher education to pursue cost savings for fiscal 2020-21
that would not affect the agencies' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and to let any
savings return to the state treasury. Agencies and institutions also were asked to identify ways
to reduce their general revenue and general revenue-related spending by 5 percent and to
submit the recommendations for reductions to the governor and Legislative Budget Board
HOUSE RESEARCH ORGANIZATION Texas House ofRepresentatives * 87th Legislature,
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Texas. Legislature. House of Representatives. Research Organization. Focus Report, Volume 87, Number 1, March 2021, periodical, March 8, 2021; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1507622/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.