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Glossary of Terms: What the Words Mean
The following terms provide explanations and examples of the spending categories and data displayed in our Check Register Search, Budget and Expenditure Search and State Revenue Search. You may also want to view a list of Confidential Expenditures.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Agency Strategy | Formulated from goals and objectives, a strategy is the means for transforming inputs into outputs, and ultimately outcomes, employing the best use of resources. A strategy describes a method to achieve goals and objectives. The legislature typically appropriates money to strategy line items. Also referred to as appropriations. |
| Appropriated Fund | The accounts established by the Legislature or Comptroller's office for the purposes of accounting, controlling and reporting of state funds. Appropriated Fund ØØØ1, for example, is the General Revenue Fund that receives state tax revenues and fees—out of which most state expenditures are made. |
| Appropriation | An appropriation identifies each agency's authority to spend public funds as legislated in the General Appropriations Act. An Agency's legislated purpose is broken down into Goals, Objectives, and Strategies, and each strategy is "budgeted" a specific dollar amount. |
| Appropriation Budget | The amount of money assigned to an agency by the legislature in the General Appropriations Act. |
| Benefits | State contributions for employee insurance and retirement; employer matching payments for Medicare and Social Security; and other state-paid employee benefits. |
| Budget Year (also known as Appropriation Year) |
The year in which a pool of money is appropriated. Every odd-numbered year, the Texas legislature meets to establish legislation, including the General Appropriations Act. The GAA establishes appropriation budgets for each agency for each of the following two years. The years associated with this legislation are referred to as Appropriation Years. |
| Capital Outlay | Purchases of personal and real property costing more than $5,000 per unit. |
| Cash Expenditures | Disbursements of state funds by warrants (checks) or electronic funds transfers. |
| Category | A group of object codes reporting financial transactions related by a common or similar purpose, such as Repairs and Maintenance or Rentals and Leases. Also referred to as Expenditure Category. |
| Claims and Judgments | Expenses related to court settlements and judgments, legislative claims (valid claims against the state made payable by special legislation), crime victim expenses and compensation and other miscellaneous claims. |
| Confidential | Certain expenditures are marked as "CONFIDENTIAL" because some objects of expense (object codes) include, or may include, significant amounts of confidential information. For objects of expense where all transactions are confidential, the detailed transactions supporting summary expenditure totals are not displayed at all. View the current list of confidential objects of expense. Also see: Employee Object Code |
| Communications and Utilities | Expenses related to telecommunications, electricity, natural gas, water and water disposal, other utilities and communication equipment purchases that do not qualify as capital outlay. |
| Cost of Goods Sold | Purchases of land and merchandise for resale (such as computer purchases made by the Department of Information Resources for another state agency) and raw material purchases (such as purchases of paper and ink made by a state print shop). |
| Debt Service — Payment of Interest | Interest payments on long-term debt such as bonds. |
| Expenditure Category | A group of object codes reporting financial transactions related by a common or similar purpose, such as Repairs and Maintenance or Rentals and Leases. |
| Fiscal Month | The specific reporting month that a transaction affects. The numbering for the State of Texas fiscal months start with 01 for September and end with 12 for August. |
| Fiscal Year | A 12-month period used for accounting, budgeting and reporting purposes, indicating the period in which the disbursement or other financial transaction occurred. A fiscal year's beginning and end dates do not necessarily coincide with those of the calendar year. For the State of Texas, the fiscal year begins on September 1 of each year and ends on the following August 31. |
| Funding Source | A constitutionally or statutorily authorized repository of revenue that is used for financing appropriations and is either (1) a "fund" or "account" established by the comptroller, or (2) a category of revenues or receipts (for example, federal funds). |
| Employee | At this time, State of Texas employee salary data is displayed at the summary level for each agency and masked with the word "CONFIDENTIAL" or "EMPLOYEE" depending on the transaction type. |
| Highway Construction Capital Outlay | Real property purchases related to construction and land acquisition for highways. |
| Interfund Transfers/Other | Constitutionally and statutorily required allocations and accounting transfers within the State Treasury, including allocations of certain tax revenue to special funds and accounts; transfers of General Revenue to the Foundation School Fund for public education; transfers of employee benefits to trust funds; and other miscellaneous accounting transfers. |
| Intergovernmental Payments | State allocations, payments and grants to other governmental entities, such as public school districts, cities, counties and other political subdivisions. |
| Investments | Purchases of short-term and long-term investment funds, corporate securities and government and other public obligations (such as federal bonds). |
| Lottery Winnings Paid | Lottery winnings paid by the state, excluding winnings paid by lottery retailers. |
| Maintenance and Repair | Expenses related to the maintenance and repair of real and personal property, excluding expenses that should be classified as capital outlay. |
| Object Code | A numerical code designating a specific type of financial transaction, whether revenue, expenditure or transfer, such as expenditures for medical services (7248) or revenue from driver's license fees (3025). Also referred to as object of expense. |
| Other Expenditures | Other miscellaneous expenditures not otherwise classified. |
| Payment of Principal—Debt Service | Payments of principal on state bonds, tax and revenue anticipation notes and other forms of debt. |
| Payment Written Date | The date upon which a payment is produced or, in the case of direct deposit, the date upon which a payment is transmitted. |
| Printing and Reproduction | Expenses related to printing, reproduction and publications. |
| Professional Service and Fees | Payments for architectural, legal, medical, financial, educational, consultant, computer programming and other professional services. |
| Public Assistance Payments | Payments for Medicaid programs including nursing homes, rehabilitation services and drugs; trust expenditures for unemployment compensation; child support payments channeled through the Attorney General's Office; grants-in-aid payments to local governments; and other miscellaneous public assistance programs. |
| Rentals and Leases | Expenses for rentals and lease of personal and real property including computers, motor vehicles, aircraft, office buildings, land and other miscellaneous property. |
| Salaries and Wages | Payments of salaries, wages and other special pay to state employees, including higher education employees and faculty. |
| Supplies and Materials | Expenses for supplies and materials including hardware, fuels, food, medical supplies, subscriptions and miscellaneous office supplies. |
| Travel | Expenditures related to in-state and out-of-state travel including public transportation, mileage, lodging, meals and other miscellaneous travel expenses. |