Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the State Budget Partisan Staffing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate committee rejects amendment to House Bill 1 that would reallocate partisan-staff funds
Summary
The Senate Finance and Claims Committee voted down an amendment to House Bill 1 that would have shifted partisan-staff funding to a per-member allocation and then withdrew a motion to concur on the bill pending further corrections to baseline budget numbers.
The Senate Finance and Claims Committee voted down an amendment to House Bill 1 on a roll-call tally of 10 yes, 12 no and later withdrew a motion to concur on the bill as members pursued corrections to budget baselines.
The committee first took up a motion to reconsider its action on House Bill 1 after members said a computer error on Jan. 15 had recorded extra proxy votes on an amendment. The motion to reconsider passed on a voice vote, allowing the committee to readdress the bill.
President Regier, who presented the amendment HB0001.001.003, said the proposal was “really about equity. Equity on a per senator head for partisan staff to operate our caucuses, that's the fairest way to go.” Regier said the amendment would make per-member partisan staffing allocations uniform across caucuses and provided handouts showing per-member and total-dollar comparisons.
The amendment would have increased total partisan-staff funding by about $381,000, according to figures presented during the hearing, and adjusted per-member amounts that sponsors said would bring parity between majority and minority caucuses. President Regier characterized the change as giving each caucus “a bucket of money, and let leadership run their caucus.”
Several senators objected to the amendment’s approach. Senator Flowers argued the amendment failed to separate fixed baseline costs of running a caucus from variable per-member costs and said adding “almost $400,000 to our budget on part of partisan staff is not what voters sent me here for.” Senator Flowers suggested that substantive changes to partisan-staffing policy should be considered in a separate bill with fuller public review.
Questions about payroll timing and whether staff pay would be interrupted were raised. Angie Carter, a committee staff member overseeing payroll and budgeting, said the start-up appropriations had budgeted five days of salary and 15 days of per diem that “essentially gets us through, I believe, the 20 pay period in January 10th, which was yesterday. But we won't be processing the new payroll until after 24th January.” Carter added that if a bill were passed and signed by the governor before Jan. 24, payroll could be processed without interruption.
After debate, the committee conducted a roll-call vote on the amendment HB0001.001.003; the amendment failed 10–12. Following the vote, Senator Flowers pointed to an apparent clerical error in how the house and senate budgets were prepared for House Bill 1, saying some budget lines had been based on 2023 actuals rather than the previous session’s budgeted baseline. Flowers said the senate minority was budgeted $9,091 less than the prior session base, and the house majority and minority were short by $70,251 and $51,817, respectively, based on figures he attributed to committee staff.
After that exchange, Vice Chair Esp withdrew the earlier motion to concur on House Bill 1 and the committee adjourned, with members directed to retain distributed handouts and expect further amendments or corrections to be circulated.
Votes at a glance: the committee passed a motion to reconsider its Jan. 15 action on House Bill 1 (voice vote), rejected amendment HB0001.001.003 on a roll-call vote of 10 yes, 12 no, and the pending motion to concur on House Bill 1 was withdrawn by Vice Chair Esp.
