Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget Transfers Utilities topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Joint Budget Committee limits "like-purpose" transfers and approves $750,000 utilities reduction
Summary
The Joint Budget Committee voted to direct staff to amend statute to bar transfers between personal services and operating expense line items and approved a $750,000 one-time reduction to DOC utilities; the committee also asked staff to draft broader roll‑forward reform for the long bill.
The Joint Budget Committee voted 5-0, with member Taggart excused, to adopt a staff recommendation clarifying that personal services and operating expenses are not "like purposes" and to prohibit the Department of Corrections from using the like-purpose transfer authority unless explicitly approved in a long-bill footnote.
The action, moved by Representative Julie Sirota, also included approval of a $750,000 one-time reduction in the Department of Corrections' utilities appropriation and direction for staff to draft legislation striking statutory roll-forward authority for utilities across agencies. Justin Braque, Joint Budget Committee staff, said the change should be incorporated into an existing draft that reauthorizes the like-purpose section that is scheduled to sunset Sept. 1, 2025.
The change responds to large end-of-year transfers the committee reviewed last year. Braque said transfers from operating line items into housing and security personal-services lines at the Department of Corrections had totaled roughly $7.5 million at the end of the prior fiscal year and that the committee should preserve the distinction between people costs and non-personnel costs. "My recommendation is that you amend statute to clarify that personal services and operating expenses are not like purposes and that you exempt the DOC from transferring money between line items unless you explicitly provide it in a long bill footnote," Braque told the committee.
Braque also recommended the committee sponsor legislation to remove a utilities roll-forward provision in statute, split utilities into two explicit line items (core utilities and energy conservation/operating) and zero-base the FY 2025-26 appropriation so staff and the department could identify facility-level utility spending. He said the Department had underspent its FY 2023-24 utilities appropriation by about $2.4 million, of which $1.4 million had rolled forward into the current fiscal year, and that the department told staff it could relinquish some of the roll-forward without compromising essential services. "I'm recommending that you do approve the requested reduction of $750,000," Braque said.
The committee approved the staff proposal without objection; the motion carried 5-0, Taggart excused. Committee members asked staff to draft a broader bill that would examine roll-forward and continuous appropriation authorities across state agencies and to coordinate amendments into the existing draft to reauthorize the like-purpose provision.
The committee recorded no immediate change to departmental program operations. Staff will prepare statutory language for the long-bill process and bring the draft back to the committee when all six members are present so the JBC can consider formal bill introduction and any technical edits.
