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JFAC staff outlines program maintenance bill structure, schedule and what's included
Summary
JFAC budget staff explained the structure and schedule for program maintenance appropriations, saying maintenance bills will include benefit, contract inflation, SWCAP and the CEC adjustments while replacement items and population-forecast adjustments will be considered in enhancement bills.
Keith Bybee, Division Manager of Budget Policy Analysis for JFAC staff, briefed committee members on how program maintenance appropriations bills are organized, what decision units they include and the committee schedule for hearings and decisions.
Key points: program maintenance will be grouped into 10 functional appropriation bills covering the full state budget, with separate treatment for the Legislative Branch and statewide elected officials. Maintenance bills will include items between Benchmark 4 (base) and Benchmark 5 (program maintenance): personnel benefit cost adjustments (including health insurance and PERSI changes), contract inflation (ongoing leases and software contracts), statewide cost allocation (SWCAP) reimbursements, and the full Change in Employee Compensation (CEC) adjustments. The intent, Bybee said, is to include all CEC adjustments in program maintenance this year to standardize decision making.
What is not included in program maintenance: replacement items (regular replacement items and IT replacement items are handled as separate decision units), general inflation/enhancement requests, annualizations and population-forecast adjustments (the item formerly called "nondiscretionary"). Bybee and committee co-chairs said those items moved to enhancement bills give the Legislature more opportunity to review growth-driven adjustments (for example Medicaid caseload or public-school support) rather than treating them as automatic.
Schedule and process: Bybee outlined that JFAC will have an initial hearing on adjustments and statewide fund impacts on Wednesday of next week and decision-making over program maintenance on Friday the 17th. The committee discussed reordering the day's agenda earlier to accommodate visitors and agreed by unanimous consent when necessary.
Clarifications from committee members: senators and representatives asked how to review the Legislative Budget Book in preparation, where replacement and IT items will appear (staff confirmed replacement items and IT replacements are separated as distinct decision units), and why population-forecast adjustments were moved to enhancement bills (to increase transparency for growth-driven spending; speakers noted large growth often occurs in that category).
Ending: Bybee emphasized that adopting program maintenance budgets does not preclude future increases or reductions; the committee can amend bases (example: separating broadband from Commerce in a prior year). Members were encouraged to review budget materials in advance of the hearings.
