By:  McReynolds                                                 H.J.R. No. 2  



A JOINT RESOLUTION

proposing a constitutional amendment clarifying that the 
legislature may provide in a general appropriations bill that 
appropriations are automatically reduced to the extent necessary to 
stay within the estimated available revenue and imposing a deadline 
for certification of appropriations bills.
	BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                       
	SECTION 1.  Section 49a(b), Article III, Texas Constitution, 
is amended to read as follows:
	(b) (1)  Except in the case of emergency and imperative 
public necessity and with a four-fifths vote of the total 
membership of each House, no appropriation in excess of the cash and 
anticipated revenue of the funds from which such appropriation is 
to be made shall be valid.
		(2)  No bill containing an appropriation shall be 
considered as passed or be sent to the Governor for consideration 
until and unless the Comptroller of Public Accounts makes a written 
certification attached to the bill [endorses his certificate 
thereon] showing that the amount appropriated is within  the amount 
estimated to be available in the affected funds.
		(3)  In a general appropriations bill, the Legislature 
may provide that, if appropriations made by the bill exceed the 
amount estimated to be available in the affected funds, 
appropriations are reduced in a manner specified by the Legislature 
to the extent necessary to bring the appropriations to within the 
estimated revenue.
			(A)  If the bill contains such a provision, the 
Comptroller not later than ten days after the Legislature adjourns 
shall certify the bill under this subsection and provide the 
Governor and the Legislature, if the Legislature has not adjourned, 
or, the Legislative Budget Board, if the Legislature by its 
adjournment prevents its return an accounting attached to the bill 
of the amounts by which appropriations are reduced under the 
provision.
			(B)  If an appropriations bill does not contain 
such a provision, and [When] the Comptroller finds that the [an] 
appropriations [appropriation] bill exceeds the estimated revenue, 
the Comptroller [he] shall endorse such finding on the bill 
[thereon] and return the bill to the House in which the bill [same] 
originated, unless the Legislature, by its adjournment prevents its 
return.  Such information shall be immediately made known to both 
the House of Representatives and the Senate and the necessary steps 
shall be taken to bring such appropriations to within the revenue, 
either by providing additional revenue or reducing the 
appropriation.  If the Legislature, by its adjournment, prevents 
its return, the Comptroller shall file the bill with the Secretary 
of State.
	SECTION 2.  This proposed constitutional amendment shall be 
submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 2, 2004.  
The ballot shall be printed to permit voting for or against the 
proposition: "The constitutional amendment clarifying that the 
legislature may provide in a general appropriations bill that 
appropriations are automatically reduced to the extent necessary to 
stay within the estimated available revenue and imposing a deadline 
for certification of appropriations bills."