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Senate panel questions Public Service Commission budget requests, federal-intervention funding and FTE pool fairness
Summary
Members of the Appropriations - Government Operations Division reviewed the Public Service Commission’s budget requests including federal intervention/legal costs and an FTE pool transfer; committee members asked staff to follow up with PSC leadership and noted equity of the new-and-vacant FTE pool across agencies.
The Appropriations – Government Operations Division reviewed budget items for the Public Service Commission (PSC), focusing on additional requests that were not included in the governor’s executive budget or had been reclassified by the House.
Steve Collin, Executive Director of the Public Service Commission, explained that the PSC had requested funding for “intervention” against federal agencies (examples given included FERC and EPA) and had asked for $380,000 ongoing; the governor’s executive budget reduced that to $190,000 ongoing and the House changed it to $250,000 one‑time. Committee staff explained the House moved several federal-intervention and legal‑service line items into a single professional-fees-and-services line. Collin described past and continuing federal docket work as the reason the PSC seeks additional funds.
Other PSC requests highlighted in committee discussion included $25,000 for staff professional development, $40,000 for targeted market equity adjustments, a capital asset request of $50,000 and a request related to weights-and-measures/scale-inspector staffing (the PSC had requested an inspector position; the total request for that package was described as $356,000). Committee members asked for follow-up to understand which items the House omitted or reclassified and whether some functions were already incorporated elsewhere in PSC’s base budget.
Committee-level issues: FTE pool and consistency across agencies
Committee members pressed on a cross-cutting appropriations practice: a percentage reduction of base salaries placed in a “new and vacant FTE” pool during the prior session and whether that treatment was being applied consistently across agencies. Commissioner Christman had objected to a specific transfer (about $113,000 of the PSC’s base salary pool) and some members said the pool should be applied uniformly or not at all. Staff described how the pool percentage varies by agency size (from 1.5% to 7.5% based on regular salaries) and how the PSC had roughly $10 million in ongoing salaries so the 3% calculation produced the figures shown on the long sheet.
Process and next steps
The committee assigned a member to meet with PSC executives to dig into the agency’s requests and come back to the full committee with recommendations. Staff also noted the House’s reclassification of some items from ongoing to one‑time and the committee requested clearer breakout and justification for intervention-related legal and consultant spending.
No formal committee action on PSC budget items is recorded in the transcript portion shown; members signaled they would follow up with agency officials to reconcile classification differences and to consider equity across budgets.
