Chapter 8 – Budgeting Process

Introduction

A government budget is a financial document that outlines the government’s planned revenues and expenditures for a specific period. Key components of a government budget include projected tax revenues, spending priorities, and any planned borrowing or debt management strategies. In many ways, budgets are value documents that demonstrate what issues elected officials care enough about to fund.

This chapter illustrates how Ohio’s budgets are created and allocated over a two-year period. Understanding this process will help you with your civic engagement activities, as it reveals how public funds are distributed and how citizens can influence fiscal decisions. This process underscores the importance of the General Assembly’s “power of the purse,” highlighting how legislative control over financial resources shapes state priorities and impacts public services.