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JBC restores funding after staff'identified inadvertent reversion of a 2023 higher-education appropriation
Summary
Committee approved restoring an appropriation that the Department of Higher Education inadvertently allowed to revert at the end of FY2024; staff will correct the fiscal-year accounting to reflect the multi-year intent of House Bill 23-1246.
The committee voted to correct an accounting error that created an apparent reversion in funds from House Bill 23-1246. That bill appropriated $43.6 million on a one-time basis across multiple fiscal years for in-demand workforce training and financial aid administered in partnership with the community college system. The Department of Higher Education did not file the roll-forward paperwork in the required format, which left the funds marked as reverted at the statewide accounting level even though the community colleges had received and were spending the money.
Staff described the situation as an administrative error in the department's year-end accounting. To correct the record and preserve continuity for community-college programs that have already received and spent funds, JBC staff asked the committee to re-establish the appropriation for FY2025 and to adjust the FY2024 line to reflect actual receipts and expenditures. The committee approved the staff recommendation to revise the FY2024 appropriation to $13.6 million and to create a FY2025 appropriation of $29.95 million to match the department's existing commitments and cash flows. The action restores accounting consistency and avoids asking the colleges to return funds already expended.
The motion passed without objection (6-0). Staff will prepare implementing language to amend the long bill and the fiscal-note record so the appropriations data and the statewide accounting match the department's cash activity and the programmatic commitments.
Ending note: committee members described this as a technical correction rather than a policy change; staff will produce drafting to correct the oversight and will return the revised appropriation language to the committee.
