Senate outlines budget-balancing plan using reserves and CARES funds; some items circled for later review

Senator Stevenson introduced Senate Bill 5,001 as a comprehensive budget-balancing package designed to address COVID-19 revenue disruptions. He told colleagues the package reconciles revenue shortfalls and redistributes CARES Act funds and other resources rather than relying solely on across-the-board cuts.

“...we took again, took money away that we sent to the committees and asked to take your base budget, which is the budget you had last January and reduce that by 2%,” Stevenson said while describing the approach and the alternatives considered. He said staff provided scenarios for 2%, 5% and 10% reductions to help identify surgical rather than blanket cuts.

Stevenson outlined specific fiscal moves, including use of $52 million from public education aid to the economic stabilization account, $56 million from a Medicaid restricted account (with a one-time offset appropriation), and drawing on positive cash flow created in the 2020 special session. He also described withdrawals from rainy-day funds and capital balances to provide one-time relief while protecting core priorities such as medical growth, homelessness support, affordable housing and mental-health services.

Several senators asked about fiscal notes and requested more time to review details not yet posted to the legislative system. The Senate agreed to 'circle' (set aside) portions of the package for further review and then moved to a short recess; senators indicated they would reconvene later to continue consideration after fiscal documentation is available.

Sponsor remarks emphasized both the difficulty of choosing cuts that affect people’s jobs and the effort to preserve priority funding where possible. No final floor passage of SB 5,001 was recorded in the transcript during this session; procedural action recorded was a vote to circle parts of the package for later consideration.