House Appropriations government operations panel reviews worksheet; funding shifts to FTE pool, governor's residence; Prairie Public Broadcasting funding cut

Chairman Munson called the government operations section of the House Appropriations Committee to order and committee staff outlined changes to the draft worksheet, including additions to a new and vacant FTE pool, a $100,000 allocation for governor's residence expenses and the removal of funding for Prairie Public Broadcasting.

Brady, committee staff to the panel, told members the first change was the creation of a new and vacant FTE pool and that "213,000 [is] being added in" related to funding reduced for guardianships under the 3% base reduction. He said the worksheet removed funding that had been shown in the executive budget for equity increases for certain staff and removed Prairie Public Broadcasting funding that earlier had been added in the executive package. Brady also said $100,000 was added for governor's residence expenses and that a previously shown state contingency had been removed because it was approved in a separate bill.

Brady described additional edits: $15,000 requested yesterday was not included for news media monitoring, retirement-incentive funding in the executive budget was removed pending more precise numbers, and $1,700,000 that had appeared in the executive budget for Prairie Public Broadcasting was removed. He said two separate pools for rent and moving costs and for space reconfiguration were removed and replaced by a single combined rent, moving and space-configuration pool for $2,000,000. He also said standard sections and guidelines were added describing how agencies may use the new and vacant FTE pool funds.

Members did not record a formal roll-call vote on the worksheet changes during the session. The committee debated next steps and waited for direction from Representative Viggasaw; Representative Brandenburg suggested taking a short recess to locate him. Chairman Munson told members the panel would "hang tight" and that they were done for the day, adjourning without taking additional action and deferring further work until Representative Viggasaw provides direction.

The changes described are staff-level edits to the draft worksheet reported to the panel during the meeting; the transcript does not record a committee vote or formal adoption of the worksheet edits during this session.