Committee flagged technical budget fixes for OCHE: DP1 position and single-audit funding

Legislative staff alerted the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee that two technical corrections are needed in the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education budget: (1) a modified temporary position moved into a personal-services account during a budget-control action and (2) a missing single-audit appropriation for campuses.

Budget staff detailed an interaction that transferred a modified position (used to review capital infrastructure) into a personal-services account; because of how DP1 calculations are run, roughly $186,200 associated with that position was removed from the appropriation-distribution program snapshot. OCHE said the position is needed to manage two-thirds of the state's university infrastructure and asked the committee to include a decision package to capture that position back in the budget.

Separately, staff said single-audit costs for campuses were omitted from the program-9 DPs during the budget build and that the budget office supports adding the single-audit portion. Earlier numbers discussed in the hearing suggested about $403,000 for one campus system audit line and $407,000 for another, roughly totaling $810,000 in audit-related appropriations under discussion.

Committee members agreed to direct staff to prepare decision packages to correct both omissions so the budget accurately reflects personal-services and audit needs. The committee did not take a final appropriation action in the work session; staff will present DPs during executive action for formal consideration.