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Coordination Between Appropriations Committees

Legislative Budget Procedures: Deliberation on the Recommended Budget

Legislative Budget Procedures Executive Summary

Coordination Between Appropriations Committees

Source: National Conference of State Legislatures, December 1997.

Key:
-- = Not applicable
N/R = No response

*Notes:

Alabama--Joint budget hearings are conducted before session, usually up to four weeks. Joint hearings during sessions are infrequent.

Arizona--All but approximately eight budgets are heard jointly.

California--Committees are not coordinated.

Florida--Both houses communicate frequently to develop a continuation budget, identify nonrecurring issues, develop budget instructions, and discuss some special projects.

Hawaii--Schedules are coordinated and use common grant-in-aid form, and worksheets are used.

Illinois--Partisan staff appropriations directors work together.

Kansas--Committees share staff and coordinate schedules.

Kentucky--Committees share staff, coordinate schedules and use common records.

Louisiana--The Joint Legislative Budget Committee conducts hearings before session, but there are also individual House and Senate appropriations committees that conduct joint hearings during the session.

Maine--Hearings are held jointly with policy committees.

Michigan--The committees meet jointly in February to receive the Executive Budget. One joint subcommittee of the two appropriations committees deals with capital outlay.

Mississippi--Members of each money committee serve on the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, which prepares budget recommendations.

Missouri--Committees are not coordinated.

Montana--Joint hearings are held at the subcommittee level.

Nevada--Committees meet jointly after deliberations to work out differences.

New Jersey--Senate and Assembly committees work independently, but public hearings and revenue forecast meetings usually are held jointly. The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Assembly Appropriations Committee conduct an independent review of the governor's budget recommendations and each committee reports an annual appropriations bill. Differences between bills are reconciled by amendment or substitute bill after the committees have completed the review. A Joint Budget Oversight Committee (six members) is established in Joint Rules to approve transfers of appropriations during the fiscal year and other responsibilities as required by law or rule.

South Dakota--House and Senate committees meet jointly for agency hearings and construction of the General Appropriations Act.

Texas--Substantial coordination is obtained through the staff budget recommendation process of the Legislative Budget Board before the session that produces the appropriations bill that is introduced in each house. Membership of the board includes the lieutenant governor (presiding officer of the Senate), House speaker, and chairs of Senate Finance, Senate State Affairs, House Appropriations and House Ways and Means committees. The board usually does not meet during the session.

Wyoming--Appropriations committees meet jointly during the interim.

Northern Mariana Islands--The lower house initiates the appropriations bill, after consultation with the executive branch through committee meetings and/ or public hearings. The Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs conducts its own budget deliberation and proposes amendments to the appropriations bill that is transmitted from the lower house.

Legislative Budget Procedures Executive Summary

Published March 1998; posted January 2004.
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