Committee approves Department of Credit Unions budget after hearing on travel, staffing and vehicle needs

The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget Committee on Wednesday approved the Kansas Department of Credit Unions' budget requests for fiscal years 2025–2027 after a fiscal presentation and questions about staffing, travel and vehicle replacement.

Ariana Waddell, the committee fiscal analyst, told the panel the agency requested a revised estimate of $1,400,000 for FY2025 — all from the credit union fee fund — and asked for $1.4 million again for FY2026 and FY2027. She said the agency's FY2025 revised estimate is about $42,000 (2.9%) below the amount previously approved by the Legislature, primarily because of salary and wage decreases tied to vacancies the agency expects to fill. Waddell also said contractual services spending rose roughly $10,000 because of travel, training, software rental and maintenance and other related costs.

Julie Murray, administrator of the Department of Credit Unions, told the committee the agency uses a hybrid exam schedule and that salaries and travel are the agency's largest costs. "Salaries and wages account for 70% of the budget and contractual services are another 26%," Murray said. She added that examiners typically spend about half the year traveling to conduct examinations and supervisory visits to credit unions.

Representative Carlin pressed Murray on a capital outlay line for vehicle replacement and a listed mileage figure. Murray said the agency looks at replacing vehicles when they reach about 85,000 to 100,000 miles and that the agency's highest-mileage vehicle is about 72,000 miles. "If a car starts giving us trouble, we might look at replacing it sooner than later," Murray said, noting the most recently replaced vehicle was replaced at roughly 93,000 miles and was about 11 years old.

Committee members also discussed cybersecurity and compliance. Murray said compliance problems are rare and that her largest regulatory concerns are cybersecurity and the ability of small credit unions to remain competitive. "Cybersecurity scares me. Staying competitive scares me for our smaller credit unions," she said.

After questions and discussion, the committee voted to report the Department of Credit Unions' FY2025–FY2027 budget favorably to the House Committee on Appropriations.

Votes at a glance: The committee recorded a voice vote to report the Department of Credit Unions' budget favorably; the motion was moved by Representative Carlin and seconded by Representative Roth and carried by voice vote.

The committee will take up additional agency budgets in subsequent meetings.