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JFAC staff outlines program‑maintenance bills, timeline and decision units ahead of budget week
Summary
Budget staff reviewed the structure of program maintenance appropriations, the 10 functional bill groupings, what belongs in maintenance versus enhancement bills, and the schedule for hearings and decisions next week.
Budget staff briefed the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on the structure, content and schedule for the program maintenance appropriation bills that JFAC will consider next week.
Division Manager of Budget Policy Analysis Keith Bybee explained that program maintenance work is organized into 10 functional appropriations bills (for example: General Government, Judicial Branch, Public Safety, Health and Human Services, Natural Resources, Education-related bills and others). Program maintenance includes items between Benchmark 4 and Benchmark 5 in the legislative budget book — for example, benefit cost adjustments, contract inflation, statewide cost allocations and the Change in Employee Compensation (CEC) items. Enhancement bills will handle replacement items, IT replacement requests, population forecast adjustments (previously called “non‑discretionary”), medical inflation and other growth items.
Why the split: Staff and committee leaders said separating maintenance and enhancement items gives the legislature more time to examine new or growing costs (population forecasts, Medicaid, replacement and inflation requests) rather than having them automatically roll into a single maintenance package. Bybee said the CEC adjustments will be included in program maintenance this year rather than split into a separate bill, which staff said should standardize practices and simplify decision records.
Scheduling and process: Bybee described the near-term timetable — an initial hearing to describe statewide impacts and language, then committee decision-making. Members discussed that four specific maintenance areas will be reviewed on Thursday to give time for full committee consideration of the remaining maintenance bills on Friday. Staff noted that even after program maintenance is set, JFAC can add or subtract items (for example, last year the committee separated the Department of Commerce and the Office of Broadband into distinct budget units).
Decision units and examples: The presentation explained the “building blocks” used to construct agency budgets: original appropriation, removal of one‑time items, base budget, benefit adjustments, contract inflation and other maintenance items, followed by enhancement requests the committee will consider later. Bybee said program maintenance by itself could total a large sum if the governor’s full recommendations were adopted, and emphasized the committee will have opportunities to adjust those totals.
Replacement and IT requests: Staff said replacement items will be split into regular replacement items and separate IT replacement decision units; that separation was designed to give JFAC clearer visibility into cybersecurity and IT sustainment needs.
No formal vote took place on the program‑maintenance approach at the meeting; staff said the committee will take up decisions during next week’s hearings.
