Committee clears technical corrections to maintenance bills, corrects constitutional officers FTE cap to 431.9

BOISE — The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Feb. 6 approved three technical corrections to bills the committee previously passed and adopted a corrected full‑time equivalent (FTE) cap for constitutional officers.

Committee staff identified four technical corrections during editing of the committee’s January decisions. Legislative Services staff briefed members on three fixes on Thursday: two edits in the public schools budget, a language correction in the Health and Human Services portion of the Millennium Income Fund language, and a numeric correction to the FTP cap for constitutional officers.

Public schools language: Jared Tetreault, deputy manager in the Budget Division, told the committee the program-transfer language for public schools needed an update to reflect that the Idaho Digital Learning Academy (IDLA), which formerly was part of children’s programs, is now a separate division. Tetreault said adding IDLA to the language avoids a scenario in which a program could deposit to and withdraw from public schools simultaneously.

Health and Human Services language: Alex Williamson, budget and policy analyst with Legislative Services, said he corrected a cross-reference where language copied from the Millennium Income Fund still pointed to the old appropriation location; the edit replaces that sentence to reflect funds appropriated in section 1 of the maintenance bill.

Constitutional officers FTP cap correction: Keith Bybee, division manager for Budget Policy Analysis, identified a typographical error in the constitutional officers’ program maintenance table. The FTE cap should read 431.9 (not 431.1 as printed). The corrected motion to cap constitutional officers’ FTEs at 431.9 was read aloud and put to a roll-call vote.

How the committee acted: The two program-language corrections were adopted by unanimous consent on the record. The FTE cap correction was moved and seconded and passed by roll call; the committee reported the vote as a unanimous Senate and House vote with a total of 20 ayes, 0 nays and 0 absent in the first instance and later reported totals consistent with the roll call reflected in the transcript. Committee staff said the changes are “short and sweet” technical fixes that will be reflected in the maintenance bill language that moves to the floor.

Why it matters: The edits prevent drafting errors that could create unintended program-transfer flexibility and ensure the constitutional officers’ FTE cap matches the committee’s intent.

Documentation: Staff noted the corrections will appear in the committee packet and on the SharePoint site for public review.