Over the course of the 86th Legislative Session, the Senate Finance Committee, led by Senator Jane Nelson – who represents the Denton County side of Frisco, and the House Committee on Appropriations put together the final budget for 2020-21, which spends $250,652,100,000 in all funds. The Legislature uses four methods of finance to appropriate funds to state agencies and public institutions of higher education: General Revenue Funds, General Revenue–Dedicated Funds, Federal Funds, and Other Funds. All Funds is the summation of these methods of finance. The final $250 billion budget is balanced, according to the projections in revenue from the Texas State Comptroller and contains no new taxes.
Key highlights:
School Finance and Property Tax Reform
- Appropriates $11.5 Billion new funds from general revenue
- Reduces recapture from local school districts by $3.5 billion statewide
Transportation
- $31.1 billion in All Funds for all functions at the Department of Transportation
Harvey Recovery and Flood Mitigation Infrastructure
- $3.5 billion from Economic Stabilization Account (aka the Rainy Day Fund) to assist local municipalities to access matching funds from federal government, reimburse school districts, and invest in long term infrastructure projects
Medicaid
- $66.5 billion in all funds, which is a slight reduction from previous biennium
- Increased All Funds funding for Medicaid client services supports caseload growth
- Maintains fiscal year 2019 average costs for most services
- Provides funding for cost growth associated with average costs established by the federal government
- Funding also is provided to support community-based long-term-care, including 1,628 additional waiver slots to reduce interest lists, attendant wage and rate-enhancement program increases, and rate increases for consumer-directed services and certain waivers.
Mental Health
- Funding includes $4.4 billion in All Funds ($3.3 billion in General Revenue Funds and General Revenue–Dedicated Funds) for non-Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) behavioral health services.
- Supports programs at 23 state agencies, and includes the following areas: funding for inpatient client services at state hospitals and community hospitals; outpatient services provided through local mental health authorities and local behavioral health authorities; substance abuse prevention, intervention, and treatment services for adults and children; mental healthcare and substance abuse treatment for incarcerated offenders; mental healthcare services for veterans; and other services.
- This amount includes funding at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for the Child Mental Health Care Consortium
Economic Development
- $1.4 billion in All Funds for the 2020–21 biennium, a decrease of 8.2% from last biennium, including:
- $150 million for Texas Enterprise Fund
- $40 million for Governor’s University Research Initiative for recruitment grants
- $50 million for the Moving Image Industry Incentive Program
- $110 million from Hotel Occupancy Tax for tourism promotion
You can read more of the Legislative Budget Board’s analysis by clicking here.
