§5-1A-1. Legislative findings and purposes.

The Legislature finds and declares that section fifty-one, article six of the Constitution, known as the “modern budget amendment,” authorizes the Legislature to prescribe by law the form and detail of the itemization and classification of the proposed appropriations of the budget bill submitted to it by the Governor, and that said section further authorizes the Legislature to enact such laws, not inconsistent with said section, as may be necessary and proper to carry out its provisions. The Legislature further finds and declares that said section makes the Legislature solely responsible for enacting all appropriations needed for the operation of state government, and that in carrying out such responsibility, the Legislature requires a continuous and timely flow of accurate information relative to the financial condition of the state, the needs and operations of the various agencies and departments of the state, and the amounts and purposes of all funds, including federal funds, being requested, received or expended by such agencies and departments from sources other than the revenues of the state.

Therefore, it is the purpose of this article to implement the aforementioned provisions of the Constitution, to enable the Legislature to carry out its Constitutional responsibility by prescribing the form and detail of the itemization and classification of the proposed appropriations of the budget bill submitted to the Legislature by the Governor, and in conjunction with certain sections of §5-1A-1 et seq. and §11B-2-1 et seq. of this code and §12-4-3 of this code, to ensure that the Legislature will be furnished the information needed to discharge such responsibility.