Committee staff outline streamlined budget hearings and SharePoint materials to speed review

Janet Jessup, a budget and policy analyst for the Legislative Services Office, walked the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee through the committee’s new, condensed budget‑hearing format and the online materials members can use during hearings.

Jessup said the committee reduced the daily hearing block from three hours to 90 minutes and standardized slides to include an agency description, organizational structure and full‑time personnel (FTP) counts, a consolidated fund analysis that lists dedicated funds, five‑year appropriation and expenditure trends, and a breakout of account-category spending (personnel costs, operating expenditures, trustee/benefit payments and capital outlay). She said the slides will point members to the legislative budget book pages and SharePoint files where full details are stored.

The consolidated fund analysis is intended to show balances and trends for agency dedicated funds that cannot be spent by other agencies, Jessup said. Presentations will also show a five‑year snapshot distinguishing ongoing base changes from one‑time enhancements, a history of enhancements and requested replacements or new items. She noted that, because the committee is operating in a three‑year window (the committee is setting FY2026 while FY2025 is current and FY2024 is the most recent completed year), the slides include FY2024 expenditures and a breakdown by expense category so members can see recent actual spending.

Jessup demonstrated how members can use the SharePoint repository: meeting materials are organized by agency and page number so members can quickly open the LBB pages, LSO slides, agency slides and hearing follow‑up documents. She said analysts included vacancy and five‑year FTP‑average information on the org‑chart slide to help members evaluate personnel-cost variances. She also noted that object-code terminology has changed; the committee will receive a one‑page guide showing the current account categories (personnel costs, trustee/benefit, operating expenditures and capital outlay) and the statutes that govern transfers among them.

Co‑chairs praised the staff’s work to reduce presentation time while centralizing materials and urged members to attend JFAC hearings promptly because the hearings are the opportunity for the full committee to hear agency‑level testimony beyond work‑group assignments. The co‑chairs also reminded members that many bills will be produced from the hearings and that members will be asked to vote on those bills later in the session.

Jessup said printed copies of the consolidated fund and agency slide materials were available and that staff would provide a one‑page account‑category guide to help members review budgets during hearings.