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Appropriations committee reviews governor's budget-adjustment spreadsheet; many items closed, several language and data questions remain
Summary
The House Appropriations Committee continued its markup of the FY2025 budget adjustment on Jan. 29, hearing a walkthrough from Emily Byrne of the Joint Fiscal Office and closing several sections while leaving several technical and language items open for follow-up.
The House Appropriations Committee on Jan. 29 continued markup of the FY2025 budget adjustment and received a detailed walkthrough of an appropriations spreadsheet from Emily Byrne of the Joint Fiscal Office.
Emily Byrne, Joint Fiscal Office, told the committee: "What you have in front of you is a summary of and sort of a side by side of governor's recommended budget adjustment and then the house budget adjustment, where we are so far." Byrne said the sheet covers appropriations only (not revenues) and distinguishes between items the committee has closed (white) and items still open (yellow).
The committee front-loaded several items including base pay changes, one-time appropriations and transfers. Byrne said the document also includes prior-year appropriations and emergency board adjustments pulled into the current fiscal year. She noted an emergency-board reallocation of roughly $14 million related to flood response that appears as a prior-year appropriation in the current totals.
Committee members closed several sections during the session and confirmed that many of the house positions so far align with the governor's recommended adjustments. Members also identified outstanding technical questions and drafting needs across multiple lines: pending data from agencies on ADS/SLA charges, clarifications on certain carry-forward offsets, transportation-contract language, and several pieces of statutory or cash-fund language that require final drafting.
Committee staff listed specific language assignments: Brady on reserve-fund language related to CCFAP and on act 250 board language; Trevor on correctional industries language; and other staff on marriage-license repeal language, HFA technical tweaks requested by the housing committee, and sergeant-at-arms provisions. Byrne said she will provide supplemental exhibits for non-general-fund adjustments on request.
The committee scheduled further work this afternoon to review language drafts and to finish open technical issues; members agreed to reconvene at 1:00 p.m. to complete the markup.
The walkthrough made clear the committee's approach: close straightforward items now, hold open technical or data-driven items for follow-up, and consolidate many routine charges (for example SLA charges) into single line items to simplify presentation.
Pending follow-ups identified on the record include agency-provided updated numbers for SLA/ADS charges, confirmation of carry-forward offsets on several Medicaid-related lines, final wording for cash-fund and bonding sections, and checking whether certain adjustments should be treated as FY2025 or pushed into FY2026.
