Overview
When there is a potential shortfall in the budget, the Governor may ask the House and Senate to consider approving a supplemental budget. A supplemental budget provides additional funding to those areas where deficiencies were found. There is no limit to the number of supplemental budgets the Governor may request in a fiscal year, but the funding needs to be available to cover the costs identified in each request.
Included in each supplemental budget request:
Filing letter
The Governor writes a letter to the House and Senate that includes why he/she is requesting the additional funding and how much is requested. The filing letter also identifies each item from the final, approved fiscal year budget that contains a shortfall and the amount of money requested to cover those expenses.
Budget bill
This is the legal bill created by the Governor that the House and Senate will review for approval. This bill includes details of each item the Governor is requesting more money for and why. This bill is attached to the filing letter.
If approved, this bill becomes "Chapter XX of the Acts (of the fiscal year for which it is filed)."