|
Senate Bill 1 |
Senate Author: Ogden |
|
Effective: 9-1-05 |
House Sponsor: Pitts |
Senate Bill 1, the General Appropriations Act, appropriates almost $139.4 billion for the FY2006-FY2007 state fiscal biennium beginning September 1, 2005. That amount includes all funding sources, excluding interagency contracts and adjustments for appropriations made by or transferred to House Bill 10. Of the legislatively approved amount, $71.6 billion, or 51.4 percent, is derived from general revenue, both dedicated and nondedicated. Another $49.1 billion, or 35.2 percent, represents federal funding, and $18.8 billion, or 13.5 percent, comes from other funds. (Figures and percentages do not add up due to rounding.) The $139.4 billion budgetary total for FY2006-FY2007 reflects an increase of 10.1 percent over the FY2004-FY2005 budget.
Legislative appropriations for major governmental functions and services for FY2006-FY2007 compared with appropriations for the preceding fiscal biennium are as follows: General government receives $3.1 billion, a decrease of 10.3 percent. Total funding for health and human services is $50 billion, an increase of 13.6 percent. The legislature's education budget, $54.8 billion, is an increase of 6.4 percent. Business and economic development, which includes transportation, receives $18.6 billion, an increase of 18.9 percent. Total funding for public safety and criminal justice is $8.5 billion, an increase of 4.3 percent. Natural resources is funded at $2.2 billion, a decrease of 3.2 percent. Regulatory functions are appropriated $540 million, a decrease of 19.4 percent. The judiciary is appropriated $456.7 million, an increase of 6.5 percent. The legislature is funded at $317 million, a decrease of 2.4 percent.
The General Appropriations Act is subject to four constitutional or statutory limitations on expenditures. The “pay-as-you-go” constitutional limit requires the comptroller to certify that certain budgeted expenditures, including appropriations from outside the General Appropriations Act, are within the amount of revenue estimated to be available for the fiscal biennium, and the comptroller issued that certification. Senate Bill 1 also satisfies constitutional provisions limiting the rate of growth of appropriations from state tax revenue to the rate of growth of the state economy. The other two spending limits, relating to welfare spending and debt service payable from general revenue, are also met by Senate Bill 1.
The governor vetoed approximately $35.3 billion of the legislature's Senate Bill 1 appropriations, of which $33.6 billion was funding for the Texas Education Agency. House Bill 1, 1st Called Session, contains substitute TEA appropriations.