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Senate Appropriations Government Operations panel reviews House Bill 1015 budget amendments for OMB, weighs funding restorations and new pools
Summary
The Senate Appropriations Government Operations Division met to review House Bill 1015 (Office of Management and Budget) and discuss restoring several line items, creating a deferred maintenance fund, topping up personnel pools, and options for state hospital project oversight. No formal votes were recorded in the transcript.
The Senate Appropriations Government Operations Division on Thursday reviewed House Bill 1015, the biennial budget for the Office of Management and Budget, and discussed restoring funding cut by the House, establishing a deferred maintenance fund, and provisioning personnel pools to cover retirement and vacant-position costs.
Chairman Wannsaker convened the panel and said the committee would focus solely on the OMB budget. Brady, a staff member assisting the committee, summarized the items under discussion, and urged members to consider restoring several reductions and accommodating new and vacant FTE and retirement pools.
Why it matters: the committee’s decisions will determine whether several one-time and ongoing budget adjustments reach the final appropriation, including a proposed deferred-maintenance pool, a restoration of grants, and funding set-asides intended to prevent late-biennium shortfalls in agency salary lines.
Brady said the House had restored a $213,000 grant cut for guardianship services and listed a $110,114 custodial-staff equity line intended to close pay gaps for full-time custodians. He identified the Merdahl Amendment — a $1,500,000 appropriation for a life-education campaign — among items on the list the committee had asked staff to track. Brady also reported an estimated deficiency for the new-and-vacant FTE pool of about $2,746,000 and described a roughly $1,000,000 retirement-incentive pool under consideration.
The committee discussed a proposal by Senator Hogue to establish a deferred-maintenance fund. Brady confirmed the fund would be established as a one-time transfer and noted there is no ongoing revenue source yet identified; the discussion in the transcript references a possible one-time transfer from SIF. Senator Eberly confirmed he had provided draft language but that members needed to decide a dollar amount if they intended to proceed.
On capital and facilities, Senators Sickler and Dwyer and other members discussed $4,000,000 proposed for capital reconfiguration and moving expenses — higher than the House amount ($2,000,000) and lower than the governor’s proposed $6,000,000. The committee also reviewed proposals tied to state hospital financing that, in the transcript, reference a $200,000,000 figure associated with SIF and an $85,000,000 line of credit as funding elements.
Brady warned of the risk that payroll changes through the end of the fiscal year could push actual agency salary liabilities above current estimates: “2.7 is the amount that we’ve quantified based on what agencies told us,” he said, later adding that rounding that number up to $3 million or $3.5 million would “help me sleep better” by creating margin for unexpected retirements or leave payouts. Senator Dwyer explicitly proposed rounding the FTE pool upward to create that cushion.
Committee members also discussed whether to give OMB a construction-management role on the state hospital project. Brady said OMB staff with construction expertise could serve as fiscal agent and part of a steering committee with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Governor’s Office, but he cautioned that many contracts for the current project are already in place and that potential savings were uncertain: “I’m not sure what level of savings we’ll be able to realize,” he said.
Other items noted in the transcript: a potential restriction on Prairie Public Broadcasting funds to support local programming (amount to be decided), an amendment described as the Uniform Laws Deficiency Appropriation (presented by Senator Hogue), and a possible emergency clause applied to capital assets and the deferred-maintenance funding pool so money could be used immediately for urgent projects.
The committee had no final recorded votes in the transcript excerpt. Chairman Wannsaker said staff would compile the list of items discussed and circulate it by email and that members would reconvene later in the day to continue work.
Ending: Committee staff will circulate a written list of proposed restorations and amendments for the OMB budget, and members planned an afternoon session to continue consideration of House Bill 1015.
