Conference committee reviews Joint Fiscal Office materials for H.493, flags $50 million contingency and Medicaid reserve issues

Members of the conference committee on H.493, the FY26 state budget, met May 2 to review Joint Fiscal Office materials and agree a schedule for follow-up work as they prepare conference language.

Emily Byrne of the Joint Fiscal Office walked committee members through the packet of spreadsheets and reports that JFO provided for conference deliberations, including a “gray out” tracker for closed sections, the Senate and House bill crosswalks, one-time appropriation details, base changes, a cash-fund summary and a reserves overview.

The committee focused on three substantive fiscal items: a contingency list in the Senate construct totaling $50,000,000; the status and intended uses of the human services caseload reserve (including the portion set aside for incurred-but-not-reported Medicaid claims); and provider rate increases included in the budget drafts.

Byrne said JFO would update the materials as the committee makes decisions and would add a conference column to show how items are resolving between the House and Senate texts. "Right now, there is no gray on it," Byrne said of the gray-out tracker,…