The Budget series represents one area of the collection that was created by Spencer processing staff. The series contains materials assembled by the Governor in preparation for annual legislative messages (State of the State) and budgetary recommendations for the upcoming fiscal year. The yearly arrangement of the governor's budget message materials, drafts of speeches and commentary is followed by an alphabetical arrangement of state agency materials dealing with budget requests, reviews, and recommendations.

Fiscal year 1976 materials are contained in seven boxes, fiscal year 1977 in one box, and fiscal years 1978 and 1979 in two boxes. There is also one folder on an anticipated fiscal year 1980 budget message.

The 1976 fiscal year comprises the bulk of material and reflects Governor Bennett's initiation into the budgetary process of the state. The files for this year contain individual detailed agency budget requests as well as budget review memoranda compiled by the Division of Budget, James W. Bibb, Director. In later years, the cumbersome detailed agency requests were omitted from the materials.

The files for fiscal years 1977, 1978 and 1979 reflect the governor's use of summary materials compiled by the Division of Budget, the Division of State Planning and Research, and the individual agency. These later materials reflect the emergence of the Planning and Research Division, with H. Edward Flentje, Director, as a predominant force in the budgetary process.

The researcher will find information in this series that chronicles the budgetary process of the state under the Bennett administration. This process included agency requests, gubernatorial recommendations, input of the Budget and Planning and Research Divisions, budget meetings, and review and appeals. Formal requests and gubernatorial messages provide valuable information on the process of assembling the budget. However, researchers may find the memoranda produced by the Division of Budget and the Division of Planning and Research (with margianl comments by the Governor) more enlightening.