Summary: Senate and House Substitutes for SB1 – Article II, Health and Human Services

Source for all information in this report is from the Legislative Budget Board documents. Background. Texas has four Constitutional limits on spending: the balanced budget limit, which commonly is referred to as the pay-as-you-go limit; the limit on the rate of growth of appropriations from certain state taxes, commonly referred to as the spending limit; the limit on welfare spending; and the limit on tax-supported debt. The pay-as-you-go limit and the spending limit both restrict appropriations, but in different ways. The pay-as-you-go limit prohibits the General Revenue Fund budget from exceeding available revenue. The spending limit prohibits appropriations funded with tax revenues not dedicated by the Constitution from growing faster than the state’s economy. The spending limit does not apply to appropriations funded with non-tax revenues or appropriations funded with tax revenues if the Constitution requires the tax revenue to be spent for a specific purpose. Funding fr