<P> As part of its fiscal management responsibilities, Article III, Section 49a of the Texas Constitution requires the Comptroller to certify to the Texas Legislature the amount of available cash on hand and anticipated revenues for the next biennium (the two - year period beginning on September 1 of odd - numbered years). The Legislature is not permitted to appropriate any funds in excess of the Comptroller's certified amounts (except in cases of emergency and then only with a four - fifths vote of both chambers), and absent the latter the Comptroller is required to reject and return to the legislature any appropriation in violation of this requirement . </P> <Ul> <Li> James B. Shaw (D): 1846--1857 </Li> <Li> Clement R. Johns (D): 1859--1864 </Li> <Li> Willis L. Robards (D): 1865 </Li> <Li> Albert H. Latimer (R): 1866 </Li> <Li> Morgan Hamilton (R): 1867--1869 </Li> <Li> Albert A. Bledsoe (R): 1870--1873 </Li> <Li> Stephen Heard Darden (D): 1874--1879 </Li> <Li> William M. Brown (D): 1880--1882 </Li> <Li> William Jesse Swain (D): 1883--1886 </Li> <Li> John D. McCall (D): 1887--1894 </Li> <Li> Richard W. Finley (D): 1895--1900 </Li> <Li> Robert M. Love (D): 1901--1903 </Li> <Li> J.W. Stephen (D): 1903--1910 </Li> <Li> W.P. Lane (D): 1911--1914 </Li> <Li> Henry B. Terrell (D): 1915--1919 </Li> <Li> M.L. Wiginton (D): 1920 </Li> <Li> Lon A. Smith (D): 1921--1924 </Li> <Li> Sam Houston Terrell (D): 1925--1930 </Li> <Li> George H. Sheppard (D): 1930--1949 </Li> <Li> Robert S. Calvert (D): 1949--1975 </Li> <Li> Bob Bullock (D): 1975--1991 </Li> <Li> John Sharp (D): 1991--1999 </Li> <Li> Carole Keeton Strayhorn (R): 1999--2007 </Li> <Li> Susan Combs (R): 2007--2015 </Li> <Li> Glenn Hegar (R): 2015--present </Li> </Ul> <Li> James B. Shaw (D): 1846--1857 </Li> <Li> Clement R. Johns (D): 1859--1864 </Li>

Which if the most important constitutional duty for the comptroller of public accounts