Budget Watch - Budget Process Underway for FY2017-18

The 2017 Legislature will have $1.667 Billion More in General Revenue than It Spent Last Year
However, Additional Money May Not Stretch Very Far

The FY2017-18 budget process is now underway. The Governor’s office recently provided budget instructions to state agencies to use in formulating their legislative budget requests (LBRs), which are due on October 14. The Governor will then use the LBRs to develop his budget recommendations, which must be provided to the Legislature at least 30 days before the start (March 7) of the 2017 Legislative Session.

In order to estimate how much money will be available for the next budget, the state’s revenue estimators have finally finished their post-session evaluation of how the actions of the 2016 Legislature will affect revenues. There is also now a final tally of total General Revenue (GR) appropriations for the FY2016-17 budget year.

The end result is the 2017 Legislature will have an estimated $32.034 billion in GR available for the FY2017-18 budget. This is $1.667 billion (5.7%) more than net appropriations for FY2016-17, and the smallest percentage increase in available GR over prior year spending in five years (since FY2011-12).

It is now estimated there is $31.484 billion in GR available for the current (FY2016-17) budget year. This includes estimated revenue collections for the year, the effect of tax cuts and other measures affecting revenue passed by the 2016 Legislature, unspent (reserve) GR from the previous year, and trust fund sweeps.