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Planning and proposal. The Texas legislature meets every other year, in the odd-numbered years. During the year before the legislature meets, planning the budget for the next two years begins. Each department of the Texas state government prepares its own budget. The department looks at the amount of money it needs to do its work for the next two years. Then the department creates a document called the Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR). This request asks for the money the department needs and explains how the money will be spent. Once all of the departments have created their LARs, they are submitted to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB). The LBB and the budget office of the governor review these requests. After a careful review, a state budget is created and submitted to the legislature for their action.
Legislative action. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have budget committees. These committees carefully review the state budget requests. They hold hearings so they can learn more about the budget. They can make changes to the budget. When the Senate committee finishes its work, the bill to approve the budget is sent to the full Senate for a vote. At the same time, when the House committee finishes its work, the bill to approve the budget is sent to the full House for a vote. After the bills are passed, a joint committee of Senate and House members meets to review differences in the two bills. Once these differences are worked out, a single new bill is sent to the Senate and House for approval.
Review and approval by comptroller and governor. After a final bill is agreed to, it is sent to the comptroller’s office for review. A comptroller is the person who looks at the finances of the state and supervises how money is spent. The comptroller verifies that the bill spends no more money than the state brings in. Then the governor reviews the budget bill. The governor in Texas has a line-item veto. A line-item veto means that the governor can make changes to the bill before signing it. The governor might want to cut spending for one department in the bill and add that spending to a different department, for example. The legislature can decide not to accept these changes, but must repass the bill by a two-thirds majority of each house.
Implementation and monitoring. Making sure the money is spent wisely is the job of many people and agencies in the state. The department that gets the money must make sure that the money it asked for is spent appropriately. The LBB must monitor the department budgets as well. Both the LBB and the governor review the budget on a regular basis. If they decide that money could be spent more wisely in one area or another, they have the power to move money around for this purpose.
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