JBC updates Advanced Industries transfer amounts, routes surplus above $2.5M to controlled maintenance

The Joint Budget Committee on March 27 approved staff-recommended updates to the Advanced Industries transfer and directed how newly available general‑fund dollars should be treated as the Legislature finalizes the long bill.

Mitch Burmeister, a JBC staff analyst, told the committee that an OEDIT request to transfer half of Bioscience income‑tax withholding to the general fund had been estimated at about $6,400,000 but "it's actually gone up to about 11,000,000," an increase he said was roughly $4,600,000. Burmeister also noted a smaller, separate forecast increase of about $60,000 for fiscal 2025–26.

Craig Harper, Joint Budget Committee staff, told members the principal distinction was accounting treatment: "If you transferred it to a destination like the Controlled Maintenance Trust Fund, then it would not show up as excess above the reserve in the general fund overviews." He said leaving amounts in the general fund would show additional money available for appropriation unless a transfer action was taken.

The committee adopted the staff recommendation in Burmeister's March 27 memo, as amended during the presentation, and directed staff to change the 2026 transfer timing from 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. Vice Chair moved the recommendation; the committee recorded no objections and the motion passed 6–0.

Members then directed staff to reflect in budget overviews a placeholder that any general‑fund amounts remaining more than $2,500,000 above the reserve requirement would be shown as intended for future transfer to the Controlled Maintenance Trust Fund. Director Harper framed that approach as preserving the dollars for later decisions rather than treating them as immediately available for amendment spending; the vice chair moved that direction and it also passed 6–0.

Rep. Jagger raised a concern that a $3,600,000 double count might affect the figures and asked that staff ensure any duplicate entries were corrected; committee discussion acknowledged ongoing reconciliation of departmental data and intra‑day movements in estimates. Harper said analysts were still reconciling data from departments and that the numbers had moved modestly day to day, noting a roughly $670,000 increase in one recent comparison.

Staff told the committee they would draft the transfer bill to reflect the updated numbers and the corrected timing and would represent the intended placeholder treatment in the general‑fund overview until the final dollar amount was certain. The committee recessed after completing the morning's motions.