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Committee approves bill limiting governor's unilateral creation of certain charter-school positions; measure advances 6–1
Summary
The House Appropriations Committee voted 6–1 to advance a bill that asserts legislative limits on the governor’s ability to create or fund certain positions out of the public school foundation program account without specific legislative authorization.
The House Appropriations Committee voted 6–1 to advance House Bill 248, which adds language intended to limit the governor's ability to authorize increases in appropriations from the public school foundation program account without legislative authority.
The bill's sponsor told the committee the amendment was intended to push back on an executive-branch hiring decision made without legislative authorization and to clarify that the governor "shall not" increase appropriations from the public school foundation account except to ensure sufficient funds are available to fund the foundation program as defined in state statute. The sponsor said the measure does not prevent the governor from fulfilling his statutory duties to distribute the block grant model for school funding.
Representative Sherwood said he agreed with the bill in principle but expressed qualms about the method, calling it an insufficiently comfortable fit for him even though he supported the general idea of legislative authority over appropriations. Public testimony and agency comment were minimal or absent for this bill; the committee record shows no witnesses from outside the legislature.
Action and next step: the committee voted to advance HB248 to the House floor. The roll-call recorded six ayes and one no.
