Legislative staff outlines technical corrections to FY2025 budget including broadband, CAFO and health payments

Legislative services budget staff on Friday walked the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee through a set of technical corrections to fiscal year 2025 appropriations that staff said are intended to improve transparency and correct drafting errors.

Janet Jessup, a budget and policy analyst with Legislative Services, told the committee the packet on members’ desks (the “yellow packet”) includes three corrections staff recommends the legislature approve at a later vote. The corrections affect the Department of Commerce, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Department of Health and Welfare.

Jessup said the Commerce correction moves amounts that were reappropriated into the department’s commerce program into a separately created broadband program so broadband receipts and spending can be tracked in a dedicated program. The change is net-zero across Commerce’s tables because the money is moved between program lines within the same agency.

Jessup also described a drafting error that affected the CAFO (confined animal feeding operation) improvement fund. She told the committee the 2025 legislation intended a $2,000,000 transfer into the CAFO improvement fund, but the bill text incorrectly named the DEQ general fund as the source and the transfer was never properly made to bring the CAFO fund to its intended level. The correction in the packet would “make the agency whole” by restoring the DEQ general fund amounts that were transferred in error.

Finally, Jessup said two appropriations inside the Department of Health and Welfare — for substance abuse treatment and prevention and for physical health services — were placed in the trustee and benefit payments expenditure category but should be in operating expenditures because they pay third parties under contract. The requested fixes move those amounts from trustee and benefit payments to operating expenditures; again the changes are net-zero across the department’s budget tables.

Committee members asked clarifying questions and were told a formal vote on these technical corrections is expected at the next day’s session. Chair Groh and members praised legislative analysts for working long hours on a complex packet; Jessup said staff and two colleagues (Alex and Brooke) are available for follow-up questions.

Ending: Committee members were advised these are technical changes and a vote is expected at the next meeting; staff will be available to answer any remaining questions before that vote.