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JFAC staff outlines program maintenance bills, timelines and enhancement split
Summary
Budget staff described the program maintenance bill structure (10 functional areas), what is included in program maintenance versus enhancement bills, and the schedule for hearings and decisions next week.
Budget staff briefed the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Friday about how program maintenance appropriations bills are organized and the timeline for upcoming hearings and decisions, describing a structure of 10 maintenance bills and explaining which adjustments will appear in maintenance versus enhancement bills.
Why it matters: The division between program maintenance and enhancement bills determines which requests are treated as routine (benefit-cost adjustments, contract inflation, statewide cost allocation, the CEC adjustments) and which will be debated as new or growth spending (replacement items, population forecast adjustments, Medicaid growth). That split affects how much committee time and scrutiny specific items receive.
What staff told JFAC: Keith Bybee, Division Manager of Budget Policy Analysis, described that program maintenance bills are grouped into 10 areas of state government: Legislative Branch; Statewide Elected Officials; General Government; Judicial Branch; Public Safety; Public School Support; State Board of Education agencies (secondary education); Health and Human Services; Natural Resources; and Economic Development (including Transportation, Commerce, Labor).
Bybee said program maintenance will start with the FY26 base budget and include the building-block adjustments between benchmark 4 and benchmark 5: benefit-cost adjustments (including CEC), contract inflation (ongoing leases and vendor contracts), statewide cost allocation, and CEC recommendations. Enhancement bills will include replacement items (with IT replacement separated out), population forecast adjustments (formerly labeled nondiscretionary), general inflation requests, and items that change fund sources. Bybee emphasized that population forecast adjustments frequently account for much of year-to-year growth and that placing them in enhancement bills allows fuller legislative review.
Schedule and process: Bybee and the cochairs told the committee that JFAC would hold an initial hearing on program maintenance adjustments the following Wednesday, with decision-making votes scheduled for Friday the 17th (committee members were advised they would receive materials ahead of time to "marinate" on the data and language). Cochairs said Thursday would be used to walk through four sets of decisions so the committee can address employee compensation and related issues ahead of Friday's maintenance votes.
Other details: Staff said total program maintenance across all 10 bills could reach roughly $12.86 billion on a hypothetical governor-aligned path, and that maintenance decisions do not preclude adding or subtracting items once the committee begins detailed votes. Staff also noted that replacement requests would be split into regular replacement items and a separate IT replacement decision unit to improve transparency for cybersecurity and technology funding.
Next steps: Materials and bill language will be provided to members before the hearings; JFAC will consider the maintenance bills and then move into the enhancement bills during the session.
