The Commonwealth Budget Process

The state constitution requires the Governor to submit a budget annually to be adopted by the General Assembly for the following fiscal year. The General Assembly may add, change or delete any items in the budget proposed by the Governor, but the Governor retains veto power over the individual appropriations passed by the General Assembly. The Governor may also reduce individual appropriations, but may not increase them. A gubernatorial veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds majority of each House of the General Assembly.

The annual budget is a statement of the Commonwealth’s program plan, the resources necessary to support that plan, a description of how resources are to be used, and an assessment of the effects of programs on people and the environment.

The Governor’s Budget is developed with a focus on the results of government programs and provides information about program goals, objectives, accomplishments and effects. To this end, the Board’s budget request recognizes the need to meet our mission of public safety through successful reentry of offenders into the community. Our approach is to provide a fiscally sound budget to sustain effective strategies related to recidivism reduction and strategically plan for a growing population of offenders who are in need of supervision and services.

The Board’s specific budget requests for the current and past fiscal years are in the navigation at left.