Legislative glossary
Fiscal note
Definition
An official cost analysis attached to a bill, prepared by a nonpartisan budget office. A bad fiscal note can sink a bill on its own.
Why it matters
A fiscal note is the nonpartisan price tag attached to a bill: projected costs, revenues, and budget effects. It reads like an accounting memo and kills like an attack ad: a bad number gives every fence-sitter a respectable reason to vote no. Drafters engineer around it with phase-ins, sunsets, and offsets before the note is ever written.
In the game
Your drafting choices in The Bill to Law Game drive the bill's cost profile, and fiscal hawks vote accordingly. A revenue offset or sunset clause can flip them; an open-ended price tag won't.
Related terms
Comes up alongside