House Appropriations subcommittee reviews FY25 Labor and Economic Opportunity budget; SOAR funding set to lapse unless reauthorized

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor and Economic Opportunity heard a high-level presentation on the department’s fiscal year 2025 budget on the committee’s meeting. Marcus Coffin of the House Fiscal Agency presented the overview and answered members’ questions.

LEO’s FY25 budget totals roughly $2.4 billion in gross appropriations, of which about $1.2 billion is federal revenue and roughly $793.6 million is general fund, Coffin told the subcommittee. He said approximately a quarter of the department’s FY25 spending is one-time funding that supports 60 distinct grants and programs.

Coffin said the department’s ongoing budget is relatively stable while the year-to-year variation is driven by one-time allocations such as federal COVID funding, deposits to the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) fund, and targeted grant programs. He described LEO as “the state’s primary economic development, workforce development and affordable housing department,” and summarized major appropriation units that include workforce development,…