Better budgeting and money management for Texas; a report to Gov. Preston Smith and the Texas Legislature.
Abstract
We are pleased to submit this report in response to
your request that we study the feasibility of budget execution in
Texas.
We believe that budget execution powers can be effectively
exercised only by the officials and staff charged with responsibility
for initial preparation of the budget. The present
duplication of budget-making authority that exists in Texas militates
against the effective use of budget execution.
At the same time, we believe that both the Governor
and the Legislature have an equal concern in shaping the spending
program of the state government - the premise which underlies our
present Texas system.
Accordingly, we are recommending that budget preparation
be the responsibility of a State Budget Commission in which
both the Governor and the legislative leadership would participate.
To the extent permissible under our Constitution, we propose that
the legislative leadership also participate in the budget execution
policy.
This is not an untried system; it exists, with variations,
in eleven states. North Carolina has employed a very similar
system since 1961, and officials in that state have discussed it in
detail with our staff. These officials state that budget execution
produces biennial savings of some $50 million on a state budget about
half that of Texas.