Industrial Commission seeks staff, IRIS maintenance and vehicle replacements in 2026 budget

Noah Peterson, budget and policy analyst for the Legislative Services Office, presented the Industrial Commission’s 2026 budget request to the Joint Finance Preparation Committee on Jan. 23, outlining staffing requests, maintenance for the commission’s IRIS modernization project and vehicle replacements.

The Industrial Commission’s director, George Gutierrez, told the committee the agency needs additional ongoing personnel and one-time support to handle larger caseloads created in part by IRIS, the agency’s multi-year effort to digitize formerly paper-based workflows. "This is a project that began in fiscal year 2021 that essentially sought to automate and digitize processes that were previously very paper dependent," Peterson said.

Peterson said the commission has three budgeted programs—compensation, rehabilitation and crime victims compensation—and that the agency is funded through dedicated funds rather than the general fund. He told the committee the commission had 130.25 FTP allocated, with 12 vacancies as of August. Peterson said the commission reverted $4,555,000 last year, driven largely by trustee and benefit payments ($3,000,000) and that $2,400,000 of…