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Advocates urge restoring combined HIV and harm-reduction budget language, ask to continue $340,000 funding

Legislative budget committee (referred to in transcript as "the committee") · February 18, 2026

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Summary

AIDS service organizations testified the governor's FY27 budget splits HIV/AIDS and harm-reduction funds into separate lines, which would prevent flexible use across both services; they asked the committee to restore prior combined language and continue a $340,000 funding level approved in FY26.

Gail Zatz, speaking for AIDS service organizations, told the committee the administration's budget separates HIV/AIDS services (section E312) from harm-reduction services (section E312.1), and that change would stop funds in the harm-reduction line from being used for HIV services. "They put the pots of money that have some harm reduction related to them in the next set the new section," Zatz said, adding that "you can't really evenly split them unless we rework the whole..."

Zatz asked the committee to maintain the longstanding budget language that allowed funds to be used flexibly across HIV/AIDS and harm-reduction programs. She also urged continuing the FY26 BAA increase — raising the ASO allocation from $295,000 to $340,000 — into FY27: "So we would like that new amount, 340,000, to continue in the FY27 budget."

Witnesses described a separate procedural concern: budget language that prevents the Department of Health from unilaterally reducing grant amounts without prior approval of the Joint Fiscal Committee was moved into the harm-reduction subsection, which would limit that grant-protection to harm-reduction grants only. Zatz said that protective language should apply to all relevant grants, as it has in prior years.

She also raised a grant-timing problem stemming from a change from calendar-year to fiscal-year grant cycles, which resulted in AIDS service organizations effectively losing six months of expected funding; Zatz said ASOs have not yet received the additional months and are working with the department to secure the missing gap funding. "To date, they've not received the funds," she said.

The witnesses said they may propose technical language to address the distribution delays and the placement of the protective language. No formal motion or vote on the item occurred during the hearing. The committee took questions and asked staff to follow up on report availability and the grant-timing corrections.