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JBC members review supplemental budget bills, explain process and timing
Summary
Joint Budget Committee members walked caucus colleagues through supplemental appropriations for many state departments, explaining that supplementals are forecast-driven corrections to the current fiscal year budget and that each affected department will have a single bill on second reading.
Representative Matt Byrd, a Joint Budget Committee (JBC) member, briefed the caucus on the supplemental budget bills, emphasizing that the package is a set of adjustments to the current fiscal year’s budget based on updated forecasts.
"Before I dive in, I think what would be most helpful is just give the committee, or the caucus rather, a a brief overview of what supplementals are and what we're going to see today," Representative Byrd said. He explained the state's fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30 and that supplementals are used to correct over- or under-forecasts for caseloads, service usage and other items during the year.
Byrd told members that, for second reading, "there is 1 piece of legislation, 1 bill for each department" and that this year the supplemental bills originated in the Senate. He repeated that many adjustments will be routine "true ups" tied to Office of Information Technology (OIT) billing and caseload-driven programs such as Medicaid and corrections.
Members asked clarifying questions about fund sources, federal funds and the deadline for amendments. Byrd said the caucus will provide more precise breakdowns on request and reminded members that amendments to bills in this package were due by 4:00 p.m. that day.
The supplemental bills cover dozens of departments with mostly technical adjustments, OIT real-time billing reconciliations and department-specific caseload and service cost corrections. Several items discussed included planned re-financing from general fund to cash or federal funds where permitted, releases of controller "locks" related to a prior Medicaid overexpenditure, and small capital or IT spending authority extensions.
