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Legislative staff present technical FY2025 corrections for Commerce, DEQ and Health & Welfare
Summary
Legislative analysts briefed JFAC on three technical corrections to FY2025 appropriations: moving broadband reappropriation to the proper Commerce program, replacing a misdirected DEQ general-fund transfer to the CAFO fund, and reclassifying two health program payments to operating expenditures.
Janet Jessup, a budget and policy analyst with Legislative Services, briefed the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee on technical corrections to fiscal year 2025 appropriations that were circulated in a yellow packet on members' desks.
Jessup said the first correction moves reappropriated monies into a newly created broadband program inside the Department of Commerce so broadband expenditures are tracked in the program designed for that purpose. "The monies when in fiscal year 2025 were reappropriated into the commerce program, not the broadband program," Jessup said, and the adjustment is net-zero across the two program tables.
The second correction concerns a drafting error in 2025 legislation creating a $2,000,000 transfer to the CAFO (confined animal feeding operation) improvement fund. Jessup said the bill language referenced the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) general fund rather than the central general fund transfer, so the transfer was not made as intended. The committee packet contains a fix to replace the DEQ general fund monies that were diverted to the CAFO fund to make the agency whole.
A final correction moves amounts appropriated to trustee and benefit payments into operating expenditures for two Department of Health and Welfare programs: the substance abuse treatment and prevention program and the physical health services program. Jessup explained the change is technical and net-zero: because the payments go out to third parties under contract, they should be budgeted in operating expenditures rather than the trustee-and-benefit category; however, statutory language in the agency bill restricts the agency from making that transfer unilaterally, so legislative action is required.
Jessup told members the committee would vote on these technical corrections at the committee's next scheduled vote. The chair thanked Jessup and commended staff for the large volume of detailed work in the budget process.
Why it matters: These adjustments do not change the total appropriation amounts but reclassify or reassign funds so that program accounting and statutory intent match actual spending and oversight structures.
What the committee was asked to do: Review and prepare to vote on the packet corrections; the committee was told the votes were scheduled for the committee's next business day.
