Appropriations subcommittee reviews governor's FY26 general government budget; members press for more detail on outside counsel, IT projects and revenue sharing

Michael Knausson, the House Fiscal Agency senior fiscal analyst who oversees the general government budget, presented the subcommittee with an overview of the governor's fiscal 2026 recommendations and answered members' questions.

Knausson told the committee the general government budget totals about $5.2 billion gross, with roughly $1.8 billion flowing as revenue-sharing pass-throughs to local units and nearly $1 billion in interdepartmental grants (IDGs), about $1 billion of which covers centralized IT services in the Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB). He summarized that about a quarter of the budget is IDG-funded and about a quarter is general fund, and that restricted funds account for more than half of the gross total.

The presentation highlighted several large items in the governor's recommendations: continued revenue-sharing payments, state building authority (SBA) rent and debt service that together account for hundreds of millions of general fund dollars, and a major centralization of IT operations under DTMB. Knausson said the governor recommends additional information-technology investment fund (ITIF) appropriations — including an additional $20 million for replanning the unemployment insurance system replacement (Midas) and about $23.5 million for a multi‑year replacement of the Civil Service Commission's Human Resource Management Network (HERMAN). He also noted a governor-directed deposit recommendation of $50 million to the budget stabilization (rainy…