Legislative executive committee lays out FY26 operating budget, recommends $3.1 million for 2026 Blue Book

The Executive Committee of the Legislative Council reviewed the legislative department’s FY2026 operating budget and staff recommendations for FY2027 on the committee’s agenda.

Director Castle said the legislative appropriations bill is roughly $74.6 million this year, of which about $72.8 million is General Fund, and noted the long bill contains about $5.6 million in appropriations that also affect the department. She told members the committee prepares the legislative appropriations bill separately from the executive branch long bill “to maintain that separation of powers.”

Castle asked the committee to consider two staff-initiated decision items that would be set in the legislative appropriations bill and one long-bill recommendation the committee should send to the Joint Budget Committee. For the voter information guide known as the Blue Book, staff recommended appropriating $3,100,000 for FY2027, down from an earlier $3.5 million estimate. “We actually think we are recommending 3,100,000.0 instead of 3 and a half million this year for that,” Castle said.

Castle explained the Blue Book carries constitutional and statutory requirements that increase printing and distribution costs: the guide must be mailed (not just posted online) and the text and titles of measures must be printed in a newspaper with distribution in every county. She said newspaper publication costs in even-numbered years can exceed $1 million because ballot volumes are typically larger.

On the property tax audit appropriation, Castle recommended no change from FY26 and proposed keeping the appropriation at $852,000. The statute requires Legislative Council staff to contract with a third-party auditor on a two-year cycle; Castle said the deliverables from that work feed the legislature’s school-finance forecasting and other policy work.

Castle noted there are other fiscal-impact bills and recent examples that affected the budget, including “Senate bill 199” and a House bill referenced in the packet. The committee was reminded that staff will bring a request for votes on the decision items on Feb. 10 and that the legislative appropriations bill should be sent to the governor no later than March 30 to preserve timing ahead of the long bill process.

The meeting materials include a detailed narrative and line items for each of the four agencies covered by the legislative department budget (Legislative Council staff; State Auditor’s Office; Office of Legislative Legal Services, which includes Legislative Human Resources; and Joint Budget Committee staff), as well as the General Assembly budgets for House, Senate and joint chamber functions.

The committee did not take a vote on the recommendations at this meeting; Castle said staff would return with materials and a request for a formal vote on Feb. 10.

The Executive Committee adjourned after the budget and calendar items were discussed.