The Facts
  • The state’s budget is currently prepared using a strategic planning and budgeting system.
 
  • The current budgeting system, which links appropriations to strategies and goals rather than programs, obscures how government agencies are spending money and why.
 
  • House Bill 2804, proposed during the 82nd Regular Session, would have moved the state to a program-based budgeting system. However, the bill was unsuccessful.
 
  • On February 21, 2012, Legislative Budget Board Director John O’Brien testified before the House of Appropriations committee that the LBB was in the process of developing a way to offer program-specific budget detail along with its legislative recommendations. This initiative is set to be unveiled early next year.

 

Recommendation

  • The Legislature should move from a strategic planning and budgeting system to a program-based budgeting system. In this way, the layout of the budget will become more intelligible for legislators and taxpayers, making it easier for all to understand how state money is spent and for what purpose.