Texas Agencies and Institutions are required to submit their Legislative Appropriations Requests (LAR) to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) in preparation for the 2019-2020 state appropriations process. The LBB has released instructions stating that as a starting point for budget deliberations, an agency’s baseline request may not exceed amounts expended in 2018 and budgeted for in 2019. Agencies were also instructed to submit a supplemental schedule detailing how they would reduce the baseline request by an additional 10 percent (in 2.5 percent increments) in General Revenue and General Revenue Dedicated Funds, with certain exceptions. Exceptions include: maintaining funding for the Foundation School Program, amounts necessary to cover the impact of payroll growth for state pension systems and employee group benefits, maintaining current benefits and eligibility in Medicaid programs, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), certain other human services items, and directions that these human services exceptions should include amounts sufficient to cover projected caseload growth. More details and a list of all exceptions can be found on the LBB site: Instructions Letter.
