By Heflin                                       H.B. No. 3303

      75R4709 GCH-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to limiting expenditures from the state treasury.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter F, Chapter 403, Government Code, is

 1-5     amended by adding Section 403.091 to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 403.091.  LIMITATION ON EXPENDITURES FROM STATE

 1-7     TREASURY.  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (c), the total

 1-8     expenditures from all funds and accounts in the state treasury may

 1-9     not exceed the total amount appropriated by the legislature from

1-10     the treasury for that fiscal year.  The comptroller may not draw a

1-11     warrant on the state treasury to pay a claim that exceeds this

1-12     limitation.

1-13           (b)  To forestall the prohibition provided by Subsection (a),

1-14     the comptroller may reduce the authority to spend appropriations

1-15     from the state treasury by a percentage the comptroller determines

1-16     is necessary to prevent the limitation provided by Subsection (a)

1-17     from being exceeded.  The reduction of authority must be applied

1-18     equally to all appropriations from the state treasury, except as

1-19     provided by Subsection (c).

1-20           (c)  This section does not apply to appropriations made by

1-21     the Texas Constitution or to appropriations of amounts dedicated by

1-22     the Texas Constitution.  In applying a reduction of appropriation

1-23     authority under Subsection (b), the comptroller may not include

1-24     appropriations made by the constitution or appropriations of

 2-1     amounts dedicated by the constitution in determining an agency's

 2-2     total appropriation authority.

 2-3           (d)  For purposes of this section, an expenditure of an

 2-4     appropriation in one fiscal year that was obligated under an

 2-5     appropriation for the preceding fiscal year shall be counted

 2-6     against the previous year's total expenditures.

 2-7           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 2-8           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.