House plan trims Division 1: cuts, board consolidations and retirement changes

Lawmakers overseeing Division 1 described a series of administrative and programmatic reductions intended to find savings across smaller agencies and commissions.

The House presentation said Division 1 includes dozens of smaller agencies and that the committee used a combination of targeted eliminations, consolidation of administrative functions and “back-of-budget” percentage reductions to achieve savings. Items cited included the elimination of the Commission on Aging, consolidation of the Public Employee Labor Relations Board, the Personnel Appeals Board and a Right to Know ombudsman into a single administrative staff, elimination of the Office of the Child Advocate, and reduced appropriations for the Secretary of State and Department of Justice in certain lines.

Committee members described a mix of administrative efficiencies (shared staff for quasi‑judicial boards), fee increases in areas such as agriculture and licensing, and one-time savings from delaying maintenance or decommissioning properties. The committee also described changes to the state retirement system: holding administrative expenses flat, committing general funds to shore up Group 2 (corrections, police, fire) retirement improvements, and authorizing a defined-contribution option for newly hired state employees intended to provide a portable benefit for workers who do not vest under the traditional defined-benefit plan.

On quasi-judicial boards, committee leaders said they eliminated or folded smaller appeals boards and commissions (for example, the Board of Tax and Land Appeals, Housing Appeals Board and Human Rights Commission) and proposed that affected appeals be litigated in superior court, sometimes without the lower-fee administrative option that those boards provided. Critics at the hearing warned that moving appeals to superior court could raise costs and intimidate some low-income claimants, shifting the burden to taxpayers and residents.

The presenter said some savings came from identifying funded but vacant positions and eliminating those authorizations—particularly long-standing vacancies where payroll records showed positions not actively paid. The committee also removed or deferred some advertising and program outreach lines (for example, pausing paid-family-leave advertising) and asked large IT and administrative departments to take modest percentage reductions compared with the governor’s requests.

Committee members repeatedly characterized these as difficult choices intended to prioritize direct care and core services while removing peripheral boards and duplicative administrative spending.