Joint Appropriations Committee approves amended draft of 2025 supplemental budget, creates wildfire loan program and targets teacher pay

The Joint Appropriations Committee approved committee formal draft LSO 0781 as amended during a meeting, advancing the 2025 supplemental budget to the floor and adopting a set of reallocations and policy conditions that reshape several major programs.

The committee turned the governor’s proposed wildfire restoration grant into a $100 million loan program, added loan authority and program conditions at the Office of State Lands and Investments, adopted targeted adjustments to K‑12 funding that increase the teacher component of the education resource block grant model by 6.78 percent, and adopted multiple program reductions and restorations across state agencies.

The committee approved the formal draft on a roll-call vote at the end of the meeting; the roll call recorded 12 ayes and no nays (see “Actions” below). Don Richards, LSO budget fiscal administrator, and Elizabeth Martineau, senior fiscal analyst, led the committee through page‑by‑page language and footnotes in the draft bill and a summary report that compares the committee’s actions to the governor’s recommendations.

What changed: big-picture budget moves - Wildfire restoration: The committee converted the governor’s $130 million wildfire restoration grant request to a $100 million loan program (section 3‑46). That loan authority is funded from the LSRA (Land/Severance Revenue Account) and includes program rules the committee added in the bill text. - Loan program design: The loan program allows loans to persons and political subdivisions for disaster mitigation and restoration activities, sets a maximum 20‑year term, and imposes a 2 percent interest rate. The committee added that the Office of State Lands and Investments may retain half of interest receipts for administration and required reporting to the Joint Agriculture Committee and JAC. The committee also: (a) set a $100,000 minimum damage threshold to qualify as a “catastrophic event,” (b) required applicants to have “reasonably” pursued other federal and state funding (the committee…