DCA staff brief board on sunset-review timeline and fund condition; 2025–26 fund projected at about $613,000

Department of Consumer Affairs staff briefed the board Aug. 20 on the 2026 sunset-review process, agency reorganization and travel and telework guidance. Legislative manager Matthew Wainwright described the sunset timeline and the January 5, 2026 deadline for the board’s sunset report.

Wainwright said the legislature uses the sunset process to review boards under DCA and that the background paper and public hearing are part of a two-year process. “The purpose of the sunset review is to determine which boards or bureaus should be, quote, unquote, sunset, in other words, abolish, and which one should be kept and what reforms need to be made to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of that board or bureau,” he said.

DCA executive-office staff also updated the board about a governor reorganization plan enacted July 5 that creates a new Business and Consumer Services Agency and transfers DCA into that agency effective July 1, 2026; and about a change in state telework guidance and travel restrictions.

Kayla Van Lint, a budget analyst with DCA’s budget office, presented the board’s fund condition. For fiscal 2025–26 the budget office projected revenues of $618,000 (about $90,000 in initial-license fees, $486,000 in renewals and $42,000 in other receipts) and projected expenditures of about $733,000, leaving an estimated fund balance of $613,000, or roughly 9.8 months in reserve. Van Lint reminded the board that personal-service adjustments and salary/retirement changes are main drivers of expenditure increases and that changes in law or unanticipated events could affect the fund.

The budget office said the recommended months-in-reserve range is three to six months; board staff and members discussed monitoring revenues, the effect of prior fee adjustments and the timing required for any fee or statutory requests during the sunset process.