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Appropriations conferees offer two negotiation packages, prioritize education and EDIF items
Summary
Conferees on the Committee on Appropriations presented two package offers — Package A (education) and Package B (EDIF/technology) — as their positions for ongoing budget negotiations, detailing funding sources and agency positions but recording no formal votes.
Chair, Committee on Appropriations, told conferees that they were presenting two packages as their offer for ongoing negotiations: package A covering unresolved education items across fiscal years 2025–2027, and package B covering items tied to the Economic Development Initiatives Fund (EDIF) and certain technology projects.
The packages are intended as the committee's starting positions for conferrees on the floor and in subsequent negotiations. Chair said the blue sheets will reference the packages and explained that package A includes unresolved education items for fiscal 2025, 2026 and 2027 while package B groups items that reference EDIF, including several technology modernization projects.
Vice Chair Williams said the committee intends to fund some technology work out of the secretary of state's technology communication fee fund rather than ARPA interest funds. "There's a little bit over $5,000,000 in this fund and the funds are used and can be expended for technology and improvements," Williams said. She added the committee consulted advisors and concluded the use is "an appropriate use of the funds." The committee retained the house position on this item.
Staff and conferees discussed a planned $26,000,000 request for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) cloud modernization; the transcript records that $26,000,000 was identified as coming from the ARPA interest fund for the new cloud-based ERP system. Other items placed in package B include EDIF-referenced projects on pages 3, 4 and select items on page 5 of the blue sheets.
The committee maintained the house positions on a range of agency items, including the Board of Regents (items 1'6 on page 10) and several higher-education needs-based aid proposals. Chair described the creation of a Quindaro Ruins Task Force included in the budget for the Quindaro archaeological site after a committee hearing found many partners and no consensus on a single approach.
Other agency positions the committee described as holding the house position or house-modified position include:
- KDADS CMHC grants: the committee is maintaining funding for 320 slots and signaled concern about whether providers can absorb that capacity. - Department of Corrections: committee noted available unspent balances of roughly $172,000 and proposed a house-modified reappropriation/lapse treatment for the remaining amount. - Highway Patrol and KBI headquarters funding: maintained as house positions or house-modified with language provided earlier in committee.
Conferees noted items that will require additional reviser language before formal introduction on the floor and said they would communicate offers to floor conferees. Chair said the committee will present the packages on the floor and follow up with conferees; no formal votes or final actions were recorded in the transcript.
Ending: Committee members said they will continue negotiating on the floor, exchange texts with the other chamber's conferees and obtain reviser's office language for items to be introduced later.
