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House appropriations briefing adds hundreds of millions to HB 2007; human services, health and IT increases highlighted
Summary
Legislative Research assistant director Dylan Deer told the Senate Ways and Means Committee that House Appropriations has added about $165.2 million SGF to its FY2025 position in House Bill 2007 and $258.1 million for FY2026, with notable additions for human services, Medicaid-related programs, IT modernization and targeted grants.
Dylan Deer, assistant director for fiscal affairs in Legislative Research, briefed the Senate Ways and Means Committee on House Appropriations Committee adjustments to House Bill 2007, saying the committee’s actions add roughly $165.2 million in state general fund (SGF) for fiscal 2025 and $258.1 million for fiscal 2026 to the bill as introduced.
Deer told senators the HAP restored a $7 million SGF reappropriation for a centralized professional licensing verification portal, added $26 million SGF as the first year of a planned three‑to‑four year move to a cloud-based enterprise resource planning system, and restored several reappropriations including $500,000 for faith‑based security measures and $400,000 for mail‑scanning equipment. He said the HAP deleted about $19.3 million for Docking State Office Building internal fixtures and equipment and added multiple workforce, health and disability items.
Why it matters: Deer said the adjustments reflect emerging priorities in human services and K‑12 enrollment pressures and that the profile is a planning document, not a final state budget. The numbers in the briefing will continue to change while the House completes its appropriations process.
Major items Deer identified included an approximately $45.1 million SGF restoration of lapsed reappropriations for home and community‑based services; an addition of $29.3 million SGF to fund an add‑on payment to nursing facilities (initially described as $20 per day); $13.6 million to add 500 IDD waiver slots (Deer and subsequent committee discussion noted that house appropriations action that day adjusted that increase to 320 slots); $6 million for community mental health center grants; increases to nursing facility rebasing and therapy rates; and $2 million shifted to telehealth services targeted at students in place of an MHIT grant model.
Deer also described adjustments in commerce and economic development funding, including grants restored or reallocated (for example, $5.8 million in FY2025 for a Bombardier defense project and EDIF reappropriations restored), and an approximately $1,000,000 SGF transfer to the Department of Commerce for a drone certification program. He reported additions to Medicaid and Medicaid‑adjacent accounts for FY2026, including $16.9 million SGF to increase some Medicaid dental rates, $10 million for adult inpatient behavioral health tied to specific facilities, and $1 million for pediatric acute‑visit rate increases.
Committee members pressed Deer on which items were one‑time versus ongoing, the timing of encumbrances or reappropriations that would carry into FY2026, and the workforce assumptions behind the IDD slot increase. Deer said some previously approved one‑time items in Board of Regents capital programs were extended into FY2026 in the HAP recommendation and that the profile does not yet reflect possible tax legislation. He cautioned the committee that the profile is a working document and that many items could change as House appropriations finalizes its position.
Ending: Deer closed by offering to answer more questions and supplying committee members with the detailed “cream” and profile sheets he used in the briefing. Committee members thanked him and moved on to other agenda items.
