JFAC makes technical corrections: broadband reappropriation, DEQ transfer, small Health & Welfare adjustments

The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee voted unanimously on Jan. 17 to approve a series of technical corrections to fiscal year 2025 appropriations, shifting previously reappropriated broadband monies into the new Broadband Office, correcting a $2 million transfer for the Department of Environmental Quality and adjusting two Health and Welfare expenditure classifications.

The committee’s budget analyst, Janet Jessup of the Legislative Services Office, told members the broadband correction was necessary because last year the legislature added the Broadband Office to the Department of Commerce after reappropriation action had already occurred, so the monies were recorded to the Commerce program rather than the new Broadband Office. The committee approved two separate motions to remove $291,737,000 in reappropriated funds from the Commerce program and to add the same amount to the Broadband Office so the transactions “net to zero” but track correctly going forward.

Why it matters: moving the broadband monies into the Broadband Office makes future budgeting and transparency simpler, officials said. Ms. Jessup described the change as an accounting correction tied to the structural change the legislature made last year.

The committee also approved a technical correction for the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Senator Woodward moved, and Representative Manwaring seconded, a motion to transfer $2,000,000 from the general fund into DEQ’s general-fund appropriation to correct an earlier recording that had left the agency short; the motion passed unanimously.

Finally, the panel approved two small reclassifications inside the Department of Health and Welfare. Representative Price moved that $160,000 be shifted from trustee-and-benefit-payments to operating expenditures in the Substance Abuse Treatment and Prevention Program to reflect contract-based outflows; that motion passed unanimously. Price also moved a $240,000 reclassification in the Physical Health Services Program, moving funds out of the Central Tumor Registry fund into operating expenditures; that motion also passed unanimously.

All of the technical corrections were presented as net-zero or bookkeeping fixes meant to align line-item coding with how the programs actually spend or hold funds. Ms. Jessup and committee members repeatedly described the actions as corrective and limited in scope.

Votes at a glance: the broadband removal motion passed 20-0; the broadband addition motion passed 20-0; the DEQ $2,000,000 transfer passed 20-0; the $160,000 Health & Welfare reclassification passed 20-0; the $240,000 Health & Welfare reclassification passed 20-0.

The committee proceeded after the votes to program-maintenance budget work across multiple agencies.