“Senators and Representatives differ in terms of the numbers present in Congress. There are 100 Senators in Congress; two Senators are allotted for each state. This number is independent of each state’s population. In contrast, the number of United States Representatives a state has is determined by the population of that particular state. There are 435 Representatives in Congress and each state has at least one Representative.”

“The budgets of individual U.S. states are typically more restricted, and monitored, than the Federal Budget. Many states have “pay as you go” restrictions that limit overspending, or at least, require a public vote of the citizens to authorize borrowing money to spend more than the state’s current tax revenues. It would be rare to find any state that borrows $1 trillion dollars to fight a war against an enemy that never attacked it, to spend more money in proving how “violence begets violence” than it would cost to fully develop a lunar Moon Base Alpha to conduct scientific and cultural experiments all over the Moon. For state governments, the built-in sanity checks on state budgets, typically prevent bizarre “pork-barrel” projects from getting funded.

Another difference between state budgets and federal budgets is the impact on society. Few state governors, due to budget restrictions, ever become infamous for their failed business practices, or become labeled as “morons of history” for espousing mindless policies, such as “Reaganomics” or “W.I.N.” buttons (“Whip Inflation Now”). Consequently, state governors, unlike U.S. presidents, rarely become villified for utter financial imcompetence, labeled instead, for other issues, such as “Gerrymandering” (in Massachusetts) for redividing state territory into unfair political districts, or “Perrymandering” (in Texas) for creating a biased Texas voting-district which is 6 blocks wide but over 200 miles long.

Those are some key differences between the state and federal budgets. “

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities there is this: Policy Basics: Introduction to the Federal Budget Process at http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=155

From the National Conference of State Legistalures there is this: An Executive Summary on State Balanced Budget Requirements at http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=12660

I will look for more information later!

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The President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2011

Committe on Rules and Administration United States Senate!

A Citizen’s Guide to Lobbying the Minnesota Legislature

By Patrick Jarosch and Brian Pasko 

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“A fiscal year refers to the 12-month accounting period for an organization”.

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“Policymakers are divided as to whether government expansion helps or hinders economic growth. Advocates of bigger government argue that government programs provide valuable “public goods” such as education and infrastructure. They also claim that increases in government spending can bolster economic growth by putting money into people’s pockets.”

More to look at:

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