Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Professional Licensing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Appropriations committee advances Board of Veterinary Examiners fee budget; members ask for clearer performance metrics
Summary
The committee approved the Board of Veterinary Examiners’ fee‑fund budget for FY2025–2027 and members urged the board to improve performance measures after inconsistent reporting of complaint statistics.
The House Committee on Appropriations advanced the Board of Veterinary Examiners’ fee‑fund budget for fiscal years 2025–2027 and urged the board to improve its performance tracking after committee members identified inconsistency in reported complaint figures.
Chairperson Mosier summarized the board’s request: $400,579 for FY2025, all from the veterinary examiners’ fee fund, supporting 3.8 FTE (including a 0.8 FTE executive director). The budget committee and the Legislative Budget Committee concurred with the agency’s revised estimate.
Representative Sutton questioned performance measures after the committee found large discrepancies between estimated and actual percentages of alleged violations relating to diseases communicable to humans. Sutton said the FY2024 estimate of 3% should have been 100% in the actuals, calling it a “pretty bad prediction.” Mosier and the committee’s fiscal analyst attributed the error to software migration glitches when the board transitioned to new software; committee members said they had discussed the issue with the executive director and encouraged the agency to “flesh out” and expand outcome measures so the legislature can better understand enforcement and complaint resolution workloads.
For FY2026 and FY2027, the board requested modest increases (to approximately $406,361 and $412,101 respectively), largely driven by travel mileage for board members, anticipated increases in attorney fees tied to complaint work and data/programming and mail/communication costs. Mosier noted the board’s primary income comes from a few renewal fees; roughly 80% of income derives from three fees (veterinary medicine annual renewal, premise registration renewals and vet tech renewals).
The committee moved and approved the Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget Committee’s recommendations for the Board of Veterinary Examiners for FY2025–2027 as provided in HB 2,007, by voice vote.
Ending: Committee members asked the Board of Veterinary Examiners to improve performance data and reporting in future budget materials so the legislature can better evaluate licensing and enforcement activity.
