To assure accurate comparisons with the governor's recommendations versus the prior year's appropriation, MDN consistently has used for the prior year figure the actual appropriations approved by the governor (what was passed by the legislature without adjusting based on any gubernatorial line-item vetoes, withholdings or spending restrictions.).

The reason is to assure our tables compare "apples to apples", not "apples to oranges." What the legislature passes always is subject after the governor signs the bill to withholdings, now called "restrictions" by the administration.

In fact, in some years, governors signed bloated budgets when it was obvious there would need to be subsequent withholdings of spending authority.

For major building construction and improvement projects, the capital improvements budgets include figures for the number of years a project is expected to require.

Thus, a large portion of the capital improvements budget involves funds that are not expected to be spent in the next fiscal year. Instead, for future years, there are "reappropriation" bills to reappropriate the unspent funds for capitol improvement projects. Those reappropriation figures also are not included in the budget tables.

The problem with supplemental appropriations is that they are for the remaining months of the current fiscal year. There are no supplemental appropriations for the full fiscal year upon which the legislature is working.

One problem with our MDN approach involves the Medicaid budget. Often, the legislature underfunded Medicaid significantly lower that budget leaders knew was required. It made the "welfare" portion of the budget appear lower than would be required. Because Medicaid is an "entitlement" program, it has been necessary for the to approve a Medicaid supplemental appropriation in the next year's legislative session.

Originally, the House had a cleaner approach directly appropriating $1 billion for the credits and $2.5 for the Revenue Department to implement the cuts. That bill died in the Senate.

For the 2023 budget, the state administration expects to have more than $3 billion in federal American Rescue funds. The flood of federal dollars for COVID-19 and economic recovery has made budget comparisons between recent years extremely misleading.

In some cases, these federal funds have been used to fund costs normally covered by General Revenue. Much of the money gets tranferred to various state funds, obscuring how this federal largess is being used.

It is not deliberate deception. There is a deadline for the state to allocate those funds. Essentialy, the federal government's approach simpy does not recognize the budgeting processes and deadlines of the states.

Compounding the problem is that the state would not take advantage of every federal dollar it might get, the legislature passed spending authorization for FY 2021 far higher than it ultimately got.