All the counting is done, and Comptroller Susan Combs says lawmakers left $359.1 million unspent during the regular session that ended on the first day of this month.

In a letter to state leaders and lawmakers, Combs says the Legislature left $359.1 million in general revenue money unspent. She revised some numbers after looking through the Legislature's work, too. The amount available for general revenue spending in the two-year budget that starts in September is $78.1 billion. That's up $1 billion from earlier estimates, but it's not because tax collections have risen — it's because of the way lawmakers wrote the next budget and revised the one we're in. She's making no changes to her revenue estimates — just accounting for what the Legislature did during the session.

Bottom line: It all balances, with money left over for general spending. (This has nothing to do with the $9 billion-plus that's expected to accumulate in the state's Rainy Day Fund by the end of the next biennium; that's a different pot of money.)

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