Senate Appropriations reviews House changes to FY26 budget bill SH489, flags reserve and transfer language

The Senate Appropriations Committee met April 2 to review House amendments to the fiscal year 2026 budget bill, SH489, with Grady Nixon of the fiscal office walking members through the house-passed text and highlighting dozens of line-item changes, transfers and new reporting requirements.

The committee’s review focused on adjustments the House made to the governor’s recommended budget ("GovRec") and on new language affecting reserves and midyear authority. Nixon said the House added intent language clarifying that interim appropriation adjustments should prioritize health, safety, education and the economy, and that capital-bill appropriations were folded into the bill’s purpose language.

Among the larger, itemized changes the fiscal office highlighted were: a reduction of an appropriation for mobile and portable radio equipment from $920,000 in the GovRec to $800,000 in the House text (a $120,000 reduction); an added $275,000 for the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation for a fire apparatus; House additions for an urban search-and-rescue team; and a $1,400,000 appropriation aimed at increasing access to EV charging ports, funded in part by a reduced transfer to the transportation infrastructure bond fund (the transfer was reduced from $2,300,000 to $900,000, freeing $1,400,000 in the transportation fund,…