Act:
A bill passed by the legislature, approved by the governor, and recorded with the secretary of state. The governor has the discretion to allow a bill to become law without the governor’s signature.
Agency:
A statutorily or constitutionally established entity authorized to act on behalf of and as an agent of the state and usually funded by the General Appropriations Act.
Appropriation:
Provides legal authority for a governmental agency to incur obligations and to make payments for specified purposes.
Article:
A major division of a bill; used in the general appropriations bill to group agencies with similar functions.
Biennial Revenue Estimate (BRE):
Article III, Section 49a, of the Texas Constitution requires the comptroller of public accounts to submit to the governor and legislature upon its convening a statement showing the financial condition of the state treasury at the close of the last fiscal period and an estimate of the probable receipts and disbursements for the current fiscal year, as well as an itemized estimate of the anticipated revenue to be credited during the succeeding biennium.
Biennium:
A two-year period. In Texas, as used in fiscal terms, it is the two-year period beginning on September 1, and ending on August 31 of odd-numbered years, for which general state appropriations are made. A biennium is identified by the two fiscal years of which it consists, e.g., 2004-05 biennium.
Bill:
A proposed new law, or amendment to existing law, that is introduced for legislative consideration. A bill which is enrolled by the legislature and approved by the governor becomes a law.
Budget execution authority:
Authority granted the governor and the Legislative Budget Board to make transfers of appropriations between agencies and items within the adopted budget.
Budget:
A systematic plan for expenditures of time, money, or another fixed resource over a given period.
Capital improvements:
Building or infrastructure projects that will be owned by the state and built with direct appropriations or with the proceeds of state-issued bonds.
Constitutional limit:
Any of four constitutional provisions that restrict amounts that the legislature may appropriate for expenditure. Texas has four constitutional limits on spending: a “pay-as-you-go,” or balanced budget, limit; a limit on welfare spending; a limit on the rate of growth of appropriations from certain state taxes; and a limit on debt service.
Current services:
An estimate of the anticipated costs and funding necessary to continue programs at their present service levels without changes of policy or legal requirements.
Dedicated funds:
Funds in the General Revenue Fund that hold revenue dedicated for a particular purpose. Funds can be dedicated constitutionally or statutorily.
Discretionary revenue:
Revenue not dedicated for specific purposes. Revenue falling into this category is usually deposited to the General Revenue Fund.
Efficiency:
A criterion used to measure a program’s inputs relative to its outputs. An efficient program is one which uses the minimum possible resources while achieving its intended outcomes.
Efficiency measure:
One of four types of performance measures used in strategic planning. An efficiency measure gauges resource cost in dollars, employee time, or equipment used per unit of product or service output. An efficiency measure relates agency efforts to agency outputs.
Engrossed:
A bill is engrossed when it has been passed by the chamber of the legislature in which it was originally filed.
Enrolled:
A bill is enrolled when it has been passed by both houses of the legislature. After enrollment, a bill is sent to the governor for signature or veto.
Expended (exp.):
Refers to the actual dollars or positions utilized by an agency or institution during a completed fiscal year; a goal or strategy; an object of expense; or an amount from a particular method of finance.
Federal funds:
Funds received from the United States government by state agencies and institutions that are appropriated to those agencies for the purposes for which the federal grant, allocation, payment, or reimbursement was made.
Fiscal note:
Accompanies a bill and provides a synopsis of the estimated financial impact, including cost, revenue, and staffing impacts, enacting the bill will have. Required for every bill by senate rules; in the house, a fiscal note is required on the determination of the chair of the committee hearing a bill that the bill has fiscal implications.
Fiscal Size-Up:
A biennial document prepared by Legislative Budget Board staff that describes state agency operations and summarizes the appropriations made during the preceding legislative session.
Fiscal year (FY):
September 1 through August 31 and specified by the calendar year in which the fiscal year ends, e.g., fiscal year 2004 runs from September 2003 through August 2004.
Full-time equivalents (FTEs):
Units of measure that represent the monthly average number of state personnel working 40 hours a week.
Fund:
A constitutionally or statutorily authorized repository of revenue that is used for financing appropriations and which consists of either: (1) an independent fiscal entity with a self-balancing set of accounts, e.g., State Highway Fund; or (2) a category of revenues of receipts, e.g., federal funds.
General Appropriations Act:
The law that appropriates biennial funding to state agencies for specific fiscal years and sets provisions for spending authority.
General appropriations bill:
The appropriations legislation as it moves through the legislative process and before it is passed and signed into law.
General Revenue Fund:
The fund (No. 001) that receives state tax revenues and fees considered available for general spending purposes and certified as such by the comptroller of public accounts.
General revenue–dedicated:
Accounts that can be counted as General Revenue but must be used for the purposes identified in general law to the extent such money is appropriated in the General Appropriations Act.
General revenue–related funds:
General revenue funds that are not considered dedicated funds, including the General Revenue Fund, the Available School Fund, the Foundation School Fund, and the State Textbook Fund. Also referred to as “funds affecting certification.”
Governor’s Office of Budget, Planning and Policy (GOBPP):
a state fiscal advisory department under supervision of the Texas Governor that supports his role as chief budget officer.
House Appropriations Committee (HAC):
The house committee with jurisdiction over all appropriations, allocations, and diversions of money from the state treasury.
Historically underutilized business (HUB):
A business in which at least 51 percent of ownership is by one or more persons who: (1) are socially disadvantaged because of their identification as African Americans, Hispanic Americans, women, Asian Pacific Americans, or Native Americans, and have suffered the effects of discriminatory practices; and (2) have a proportionate interest and participation in the control, operation, and management of the business.
Inputs:
The resources that an agency uses to produce services, including human, financial, facility, or material resources.
Issue docket:
A document prepared for the Conference Committee on Appropriations identifying the differences in line-item amounts and rider language between the house and senate versions of the general appropriations bill.
Legislative Appropriation: Request (LAR)
A formal request for funding made by each state agency and institution. This request is in accordance with instructions developed by the Legislative Budget Board and Governor’s Office of Budget, Policy, and Planning. The agency request is prepared according to the approved strategic planning and budget structure for that agency.
Legislative Budget Board (LBB):
A legislative agency consisting of the lieutenant governor, speaker of the house, and eight members of the legislature who initiate state budget policy and who have specific charges to direct the expenditure and appropriation of state funds. Also refers to the staff members of the Legislative Budget Board.
Line-item:
An element of spending authority granted to an agency or institution in an appropriations bill. Literally, a line in the General Appropriations Act specifying an agency’s appropriations for a specific designated use. In Texas, the governor may veto a line-item.
Line-item veto:
The governor’s authority to veto spending on a line-item basis. Allows the governor to veto spending for a particular item without eliminating total agency funding.
Markup:
The term used to describe the period of time during which the Senate Finance Committee or the House Appropriations Committee makes changes to the general appropriations bill.
Measure:
An indicator of agency efforts and accomplishments. Measures indicate agency accomplishments already achieved, planned, or required by legislative directive.
Mission:
An element of an agency’s strategic plan that describes the reason for the agency’s existence.
Non-budgetary elements:
Strategic planning goals, objectives, or strategies created to convey an agency activity or service which is not separately and directly costed or funded. Non-budgetary elements are not included as a distinct and separate item in the agency’s appropriations request and may have measures which remain internal to the agency and are not reported on a routine basis to oversight entities.
Objectives:
Clear targets for specific actions. Objectives mark interim steps toward achieving an agency’s long-range mission and goals. Linked directly to agency goals, objectives are measurable, time-based statements of intent.
Other funds:
Any funds not included in the other methods of finance (General Revenue Funds, General Revenue-Dedicated Funds, and Federal Funds). “Other Funds” include the State Highway Fund, trust funds, bond proceeds, interagency contracts, certain revenue held in higher education “local” accounts and constitutional funds (except the Available School Fund).
Outcomes:
Outcomes are quantified results or impacts of government actions.
Output:
Products and services resulting from the use of resources
Performance measure:
A measure that indicates the extent to which an agency is achieving its goals or objectives and that is identified in the General Appropriations Act along with targeted performance objectives for each year of the biennium. These can be outcome, output, efficiency, or input/explanatory measures.
Performance Report:
A biennial document prepared by the Legislative Budget Board that compiles selected performance evaluations. The document is submitted to the legislature at the start of each regular session.
Performance target:
Quantitative performance standards set by the legislature in the General Appropriations Act.
Permanent School Fund (PSF):
The PSF was created in 1854 expressly for the benefit of the public schools of Texas. The Constitution of 1876 stipulated that certain lands and all proceeds from the sale of those lands should also constitute the PSF. Additional Acts later gave more public domain land and rights to the PSF. All of the proceeds from the sale or rental of those lands, including lease rentals, bonuses, and royalty payments, become the corpus of the PSF. Currently, most of the principle assets of the PSF are in securities. See also Available School Fund.
Resolution:
Legislation that is used for matters of business within one house or between the two houses. For instance, rules are adopted and modified by resolutions.
Rider:
A legislative directive or appropriation inserted in the General Appropriations Act following appropriation line-items for an agency or in the special or general provisions of the act. A rider provides direction, expansion, restriction, legislative intent, or an appropriation. The term also applies to special provisions at the end of each article and general provisions in the General Appropriations Act. A rider appropriation is distinguished from a regular appropriation (i.e., line-items in the General Appropriations Act), and a special appropriation (i.e., legislation other than the General Appropriations Act).
Salary group:
Each classified position has a related salary level. Salary groups range from Group 02 through Group 21. Each grouping designates a salary range further divided into Step 1 through Step 8.
Schedule of exempt positions:
Schedule of personnel employed on a regular basis who are exempted from the position classification plan by the General Appropriations Act or by the governor.
Senate Finance Committee (SFC):
The senate committee that deals with legislation affecting appropriations, revenues, and matters of state financial activity.
Special funds:
Non-general revenue funds that have retained their revenue dedication and are exempt from funds consolidation.
Statute:
A law enacted by the legislature. Statutes are generally placed in codes with other legislation on the same subject.
Strategic plan:
A formal document that communicates an agency’s mission, goals, objectives, strategies, and performance measures. Other elements of a strategic plan include an internal/external assessment and agency philosophy.
Strategic planning:
A long-term, future-oriented process of assessment, goal-setting, and decision-making that maps an explicit path between the present and a vision of the future, that relies on careful consideration of an organization’s capabilities and environment, and leads to priority-based resource allocation.
Strategic planning and budgeting system:
The budgeting system for the State of Texas. Under this system, agencies request and receive appropriations related to elements of their strategic plans. Typically, legislative line-item appropriations are made to agencies for specific strategies.
Strategies:
Formulated from goals and objectives, a strategy is the means for transforming inputs into outputs, and ultimately outcomes, employing the best use of resources. A strategy describes a method to achieve goals and objectives. The legislature typically appropriates money to strategy line items.
Transferability:
The ability of an agency to transfer legislative appropriations from one agency to another, from one department to another, or from an agency’s line-item to another line-item. Transferability is generally authorized by rider in the General Appropriations Act.
Unexpended balance (U.B.):
The amount left in an item of appropriation at the end of an appropriation period and includes only that part of the appropriation, if any, which has not had an obligation or commitment made by the agency in charge of spending the appropriation. The term also refers to the amount of an appropriation, a fund, or a category of revenue which is brought forward (appropriated) to the succeeding fiscal year.
Source: Senate Research Center, “Budget 101”
Adapted from the Legislative Budget Board