Developing a Clear Budget for Legislative Agencies: Senate Committee on Administration

Background

Texas’ General Appropriations Act (GAA) contains a vast amount of information. Indeed, literally every dollar that the state spends is, by definition, accounted for in the state budget. This is necessarily a vast amount of information because in the current biennium, the legislature appropriated $216 billion in all funds, or approximately $7,600 for every person residing in the state. These appropriations come from four main sources of revenue:

• State general revenue (GR): tax revenues collected by the state that are not dedicated for a specific purpose

• Dedicated general revenue (GR-D): tax revenues collected by the state that are collected for a specific purpose

• Federal funds: funds received from the federal government for specific purposes or programs

• Other funds: funds that do not fall into any of the other criteria listed above (this includes revenue such as trust funds, bond proceeds, and interagency contracts)

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