The Budget Process
Each year, officials from public education, higher education, and other state agencies submit requests to the Governor's Office of Management and Budget for additional funding to meet needs such as increased costs associated with population growth, inflationary increases, increased costs associated with federal mandates, and other reasons. GOMB analyzes these requests and assists the Governor in preparing final budget recommendations.
The Governor delivers his budget message and gives his budget recommendations to the Legislature through the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst (LFA). The LFA analyzes those recommendations and prepares their own recommendations to the Legislature through eleven joint appropriations committees. These committees review LFA recommendation and submit their final recommendations to the Executive Appropriations Committee (EAC).
EAC receives the recommendations from the joint appropriations committees, makes final budgetary decisions to balance the budget, and directs the LFA to prepare appropriations bills. The appropriations bills are debated and the Legislature as a whole passes them. The bills are then signed by the Governor and go into effect on the associated effective dates.