Monday, January 11, 2021 Recession cuts how much lawmakers can spend with the next state budget, but decrease isn’t as bad as feared Posted By Mitchell Ferman, The Texas Tribune on Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 1:44 PM click to enlarge Flickr / Ed Schipul Texas lawmakers will enter the legislative session this week with an estimated $112.5 billion available to allocate for general purpose spending in the next two-year state budget, a number that's down slightly from the current budget but is significantly higher than what was estimated this summer when the coronavirus began to devastate the economy. Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar on Monday announced that number in his biennial revenue estimate, which sets the amount lawmakers can commit to spending when they write a new budget this year. But he acknowledged that Texas' economic future remains "clouded in uncertainty" and that numbers could change in the coming months.