A majority of all the members elected to the Senate and House of Representatives, in joint session, hereby declares it to be expedient to alter the Constitution by the adoption of the following Article of Amendment, to the end that it may become at part of the Constitution [if similarly agreed to in a joint session of the next General Court and approved by the people at the state election next following]:

ARTICLE OF AMENDMENT

Section 3 of Article LXIII of the Articles of Amendment to the Constitution of the Commonwealth is hereby annulled and the following is adopted in place thereof:--

Section 3. The General Appropriation Bill. - All appropriations based upon the budget to be paid from taxes or revenues shall be incorporated in a single bill which shall be called the general appropriation bill. The general court may increase, decrease, add or omit items in the budget, except that, the percentage growth in aggregate expenditures in the budget for any fiscal year, over the previous fiscal year’s budget, shall not be more than the percentage growth rate of inflation for the same fiscal year time period plus the percentage growth rate of the Commonwealth’s population for the same fiscal year time period. Such percentage growth rate of inflation shall be determined by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for Boston-Brockton-Nashua, all items, all urban consumers, not seasonally adjusted, or its successor index. Such percentage growth rate of the Commonwealth’s population shall be determined by the United States Census Bureau. The general court may provide for its salaries, mileage, and expenses and for necessary expenditures in anticipation of appropriations, but before final action on the general appropriation bill it shall not enact any other appropriation bill except on recommendation of the governor. The governor may at any time recommend to the general court supplementary budgets which shall be subject to the same procedures as the original budget.