The paper presents a comprehensive study of the importance of the principle of general (aggregate) cost coverage for the formation of the Russian budget system, formation of budget and tax legislation, implementation of modern budget policy and development of law enforcement practice. Special attention is paid not only to the doctrinal and theoretical understanding of this principle, but also to the systematization and research of various introduced practices of linking budget expenditures with specific sources of revenues (primarily mandatory public payments) or financing budget deficits. The paper presents various legislative proposals for the introduction of exceptions to the prohibition of linking budget expenditures and certain budget revenues, which were rejected due to their contradiction to the principle of total (aggregate) cost coverage. The study allowed the author to make proposals based on the constitutional principle of mutual trust between the State and society. By introducing a mandatory public payment, the payment of which is conditioned by the purpose of carrying out special expenses of public authorities, the state must create a guaranteed target mechanism for financing such expenses using special mechanisms for accumulating budget revenues.