78S30139 JJT-D

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.
	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)  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.  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.  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.  If the 
bill contains such a provision, the Comptroller shall certify the 
bill under this subsection and provide the Governor and the 
Legislature an accounting of the amounts by which appropriations 
are reduced under the provision.  If an appropriation bill does not 
contain such a provision, and [When] the Comptroller finds that the 
[an] 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.  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 appropriation to within the 
revenue, either by providing additional revenue or reducing the 
appropriation.
	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."