Committee approves technical correction setting $21,902 per public‑school support unit for health insurance distribution

The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee on Wednesday granted unanimous consent to include a corrected per‑support‑unit dollar figure for health insurance distributions to public schools.

Jared Tatro, deputy division manager for Legislative Services’ Budget and Policy Analysis Division, told the committee the program maintenance bill incorrectly listed a per‑full‑time‑position calculation instead of the required per‑support‑unit dollar amount. Tatro said the correct figure to appear in the bill is $21,902 per support unit; the earlier draft showed the calculation as $21,901.50 and the number was rounded up.

The correction is technical: Tatro said the statute requires a dollar amount in the bill so the Department of Education knows how much to distribute per support unit. He asked the committee to accept the calculated per‑support‑unit amount as highlighted on the screen and to include that dollar figure in the program maintenance bill for public schools.

A committee member requested unanimous consent to include the corrected amount; no objections were recorded and the chair ordered the change. The request and the committee’s action were recorded as unanimous consent with no formal roll‑call vote.

Clarifying details provided during the presentation included the staff allowance concept used to convert positions to support units and that the erroneous figure resulted from a rounding difference (21,901.50 rounded to $21,902). Tatro offered to answer further questions and the committee moved on after the correction was accepted.

The committee did not take additional formal votes on related education items during this segment.