Conference committee moves $4 million for education transformation to separate bill; seeks one‑time funding adjustments

The conference committee on the FY26 budget agreed to carry $4 million for education transformation in a separate bill rather than include it in the base appropriation, staff said.

Emily Burns, staff member, explained the construct: "This assumes that we 0 out the education transformation in the base and then add 4,000,000 to h 4 54, the education transformation bill." The committee therefore planned to show the $4 million as a one‑time appropriation tied to that bill rather than in the budget base.

Why it matters: placing the $4 million in a separate bill and treating it as one‑time avoids embedding the dollars in the base budget; that choice affects future fiscal targets and how contingency transfers are used.

To create the one‑time availability the committee discussed a transfer and contingency approach. Joint fiscal advised fully appropriating the money for education transformation and using the contingency list to adjust other transfers: increase the transfer to the ADS fund on the contingency list so the committee could free up $3 million of one‑time dollars for education transformation in FY26 while keeping the ADS transfer as the first contingency item. Staff described the plan as appropriating the education transformation money in April and then using contingency ordering to preserve management of other transfers.

The committee left the final placement and the exact contingency adjustments as an open reconciliation question to be finalized in follow‑up meetings. Committee staff noted those mechanics are administrative choices to preserve budget targets while meeting the conferees’ funding intent.