House Appropriations Committee reviews JFO’s first-pass FY26 budget spreadsheets

Burlington — On Wednesday, March 12, 2025, the Vermont House Appropriations Committee met to review the Joint Fiscal Office’s first-pass spreadsheets for the FY26 budget, focusing on base versus one‑time appropriations, interfund transfers and reserve calculations, Joint Fiscal Office staff member Emily Byrne told the committee.

Byrne said the top-line FY26 base appropriation shown in the spreadsheets is about $2.2 billion, reflecting annualized pay act costs, benefit increases and standard operating changes. She described separate tabs for ongoing “base” items and for one‑time appropriations so the committee could keep recurring and nonrecurring spending distinct. “For the record, Emily Byrne from the Joint Fiscal Office,” Byrne prefaced, adding the spreadsheets are a work in progress and “we will update them accordingly.”

The nut of the session was the committee’s review of how the governor’s recommendations and other adjustments net against forecasted revenue. The Joint Fiscal Office showed a set of transfers totaling about $105 million in the governor’s recommendation, including roughly $81 million to the debt service fund and $14.8 million to a capital infrastructure cash fund. Byrne noted there is an annual transfer into the Tax…