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Ten questions from The budget. Each answer says why. Your answers stay in your browser.
Standing appropriations are set in the Code itself. School aid is the largest.
On spending bills, the Governor can veto individual items while signing the rest: an item veto.
The Governor proposes a budget in the Condition of the State speech and must send it to the Legislature by February 1.
The state can budget no more than 99% of the December estimate, or a later, lower one.
Leftover money fills the Cash Reserve Fund and the Economic Emergency Fund to the levels set in law before it can go elsewhere.
Supplemental appropriations change the budget for the fiscal year already under way.
Iowa’s fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30 and is named for the year it ends.
The General Fund is the state’s main account, mostly from income and sales taxes.
The limit uses the December estimate or a later, lower one. A higher spring estimate doesn’t raise it.
The budget is about a dozen appropriations bills plus a standings bill and usually a tax bill, most passed in the last weeks of session.
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