Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget State Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Caucus reviewed Senate budget package; staff highlighted employee health trust funding and higher-education 'waterfall' allocations
Summary
Senate staff presented highlights from the budget package including an appropriation for the state employee health insurance trust fund and a distribution 'waterfall' for higher-education programs; leaders asked for details on amounts and staff provided program allocations for promise and teacher programs.
Senate staff briefed the caucus on the budget package and highlighted several allocations and policy features.
The presenter described overall totals for revenues and spending (figures in the caucus remarks appeared garbled in the transcript). He highlighted a full appropriation for the state employee health insurance trust (HITIF) with a total appropriation cited as $194,900,000 and said the funding would not require increases to premiums or copays for state employees. "There's a total appropriation of a 194,900,000.0. This would not require This is a full funding of that, trust fund and would not require the increase of any premiums or co pays on state employees," the presenter said.
On higher-education allocations, the presenter described a "waterfall" distribution for the remaining balance each year to support veteran spouses' tuition scholarships and other programs: 60% to the Arizona Promise program, 30% to the Arizona Teachers Academy, and 10% to the Community College Promise Program Fund. When asked whether a dollar total existed for those allocations, the presenter said that the waterfall is not coming from the general fund and provided the expected appropriations for this year: about $36,000,000 to the Arizona Promise Program, $9,000,000 to the Arizona Teachers Academy and $3,000,000 to the Community College Promise Program Fund. "That will bring the total appropriation for the Arizona Promise Program to about 36,000,000. The Arizona Teachers Academy will receive 9,000,000 this year. The Community College Promise Program will receive, for the first time ever, dollars 3,000,000," the presenter said.
The presenter invited questions and the caucus adjourned after brief remarks and thanks to staff. The transcript does not record formal budget votes or adoption in this caucus meeting; speaker remarks contained numeric formatting issues in the recorded transcript and staff-level clarifications were offered on specific program numbers.
