Ways & Means advances H.141 budget adjustment; committee approves bill after discussion of childcare and education reserves

The Ways & Means Committee advanced H.141, the FY2025 Budget Adjustment Act, on a committee vote the clerk announced as 7 yes, 3 no and 1 abstention after a roll call and discussion of multiple program-specific adjustments.

The committee’s discussion focused on changes affecting the Childcare Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP), a backstop using the human services caseload reserve, and several education funding adjustments including a $1 million reduction to the state-placed students appropriation and shifts to adult education and literacy funding.

Emily Byrne of the Joint Fiscal Office walked committee members through an annotated memo tying the committee’s recommended adjustments to the sections of H.141. “What I’ve done is I took that memo that you sent to House Appropriations Committee, and then I just sort of annotated it with like, this is the section in the bill where it shows up,” Byrne told the committee.

On childcare funding, Byrne said the bill expands authority in section 79 to use the human services caseload reserve to transfer funds into the childcare contribution special fund if revenues underperform or expenses exceed projections. She described the reserve as “over $90,000,000” and said the language creates a backstop if the childcare fund ends the year out of balance. Byrne said the bill also…