Annually, the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Governor work together to pass the state budget.Rooted in the Administrative Code of 1929, the budget process starts with the Governor's Budget Address around March of each year. Following the address, the Governor's Executive Budget book is disseminated to legislative offices, including the Library of the Senate of Pennsylvania. Budget Hearings can last weeks while the legislators decide how and where to spend Pennsylvania tax dollars, exchanging priorities and bills in the process. June of each year is Budget Season, where legislators and their staff work long days in Session to get the budget bill passed before the June 30 fiscal year cut off.
The Governor's Executive Budget has been published every year for more than a century and the Library of the Senate has preserved and made accessible these books to researchers for just as long. Facts and figures, table and graphs make up the sometimes-hundreds of pages of the budget books each year but the cover of the book tells a different story. Style, design, priorities and illustration are all on display in the cover art of the annual budget book. Created by the Governor's Office of the Budget, the covers range from pure text to elaborate illustrations of the city and its people. Flip through a century of budget book covers to see how they changed over time, along with our city, style and the way we like to take in information.