Legislative staff present technical corrections to FY2025 budget; changes net to zero

Janet Jessup, a budget and policy analyst with Legislative Services, briefed the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC) on three technical corrections to fiscal year 2025 appropriations that staff identified in the committee's “yellow packet.”

Jessup said the first correction concerns the Department of Commerce. "The monies when in fiscal year 2025 were reappropriated into the commerce program, not the broadband program," she said, and staff are moving the reappropriated dollars from the commerce program into the broadband program so spending tied to broadband grants and projects can be tracked separately. She said the net effect of that table adjustment is zero because funds are moved between programs within the same department.

The second correction fixes a drafting error affecting a transfer to the CAFO (confined animal feeding operations) improvement fund. Jessup said the bill language as enacted referenced the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) general fund rather than the state's general fund transfer, and "the transfer from the general fund was never made to CAFO." The correction would replace DEQ general fund dollars that had been used in place of the intended CAFO transfer so the agency is made whole.

The third change moves amounts previously budgeted to "trustee and benefit payments" into operating expenditure lines for two programs in the Department of Health and Welfare (substance abuse treatment and prevention, and physical health services). Jessup said those payments are to third-party contractors under state contracts and therefore should be categorized as operating expenditures; because the Health and Welfare appropriation included language restricting transfers out of trustee-and-benefit-payment lines, the legislature must authorize the reclassification.

Chairman Groh thanked Jessup and staff for the review and told the committee the corrections are technical. Committee members were invited to ask follow-up questions; Jessup and other legislative staff remained available. The chair said the committee will vote on these technical corrections the next day as part of the broader maintenance and statewide decisions agenda.

The corrections as described by staff are bookkeeping and classification fixes rather than new program funding: moving dollars between internal program lines or correcting the intended receiving fund, and thus are net-neutral in the packet presented to JFAC.

Ending — The committee accepted the explanation and scheduled the package of technical corrections for a vote the following day as part of the maintenance budget process.