Appropriations committee adopts fee-funded budget for Board of Veterinary Examiners through 2027

The House Appropriations Committee adopted the agriculture committee’s recommendations for the Board of Veterinary Examiners’ budgets for fiscal years 2025–2027, approving the agency’s fee-funded requests and unchanged staff levels.

Chairperson Mosier reported the board — established in 1907 to protect public health by licensing veterinarians and veterinary technicians and inspecting veterinary premises — requested $400,579 and 3.8 FTEs for fiscal 2025 from the board’s fee fund. The Legislative Budget Committee and the House Ag and Natural Resources budget committee had concurred with the agency’s revised estimate.

For fiscal 2026 the agency requested $406,361 (a $5,782 increase or 1.4%), reflecting higher reimbursable private vehicle miles after the seven-member board elected members from distant communities and an anticipated rise in attorney and communications costs. Representative Sutton questioned the reliability of the agency’s performance measures after a software migration glitch misreported the percent of communicable-disease investigations; committee members said the board will work to improve performance metrics.

For fiscal 2027 the agency projected $412,101 from the fee fund, citing mileage, group health insurance, attorney fees and data/programming costs. Mosier noted roughly 80% of the board’s revenue comes from three primary fees: veterinarian annual renewals, premise registration renewals and vet tech renewals; the board is examining statutory fee limits.

Representative Mosier moved and the committee approved the committee recommendations for the board for FY2025–FY2027 as provided in House Bill 2007.