evidence: Your Texas lawmakers are required — per the state’s constitution — to pass a balanced budget. They can spend any amount of the surplus before the 2022-23 biennium ends Aug. 31, or they can add all or part of it into the 2024-25 budget. Or they can do nothing with it at all. Exactly how they decide to use this enormous windfall is now the central conversation before the Texas Legislature. [...] Texas’ $32.7 billion surplus is about the size of the budget of South Carolina. It’s larger than the budgets of 24 states. Texas’ overall budget is the third biggest after California and New York, and followed by Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Florida, according to a 2022 survey conducted by the National Association of State Budget Officers.