Understanding Budget Submissions

There are different types of budget submissions. First there are OPERATING submissions which establish money for the positions and operational aspects of agencies and secondly there are CAPITAL submissions which fund the Commonwealth's investment in Capital projects like buildings and other structures. In establishing the Commonwealth's biennial budget, agencies will first set up a base line for their operating budget with a base budget submission. They will then submit one or more series of addenda submissions which make adjustments to their base reflecting recent changes in their environment or state policies. In setting up this biennium they will also (if necessary) submit a Capital submission for new or continuing Capital projects. The next year agencies submit budget amendments (addenda submissions) which make adjustments to their budget. The following year agencies begin the process over again to set up the next biennium and also submit final amendments to current biennium. These final adjustments are presented to the General Assembly in what is called the "Caboose Bill". Balancing Funds verses subobject Records In every submission an agency will enter a series of records. Fund records will be entered at the program level, showing how much money is being allocated to that program and from what fund sources. For every program the agency will also enter subobject records showing how much of those funds are being directed for every subprogram and detailed subobject code within that Program. One of the major tasks for agencies and DPB analysts is making sure that the amount of funding for each program is equal to the total subobject amount for that program. For capital submissions records are entered for the five digit project code instead of the three digit program code used in operating submissions. In addition capital projects, only use a single subobject code per Project which is "2411". Beginning in the summer or early fall, DPB will begin collecting budget requests from the agencies. For each submission, agencies should enter in their fund and subobject records, verify records are balanced, then choose the "Complete Submission" option to notify DPB staff that they are done. One after another this process will repeat for each budget submission scheduled for that year.