House Energy panel backs ADS letter, endorses $14 million FY27 budget increase in straw polls

MONTPELIER — The House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on Thursday reviewed a draft letter to House Appropriations describing proposed changes to the Agency of Digital Services (ADS) budget for fiscal year 2027 and signaled support, via committee straw polls, for two key items in that letter.

Joint Fiscal Office staff told the committee the draft letter ‘reflects my understanding’ of ADS’s proposals and that the FY27 plan creates “an overall increase in $14,000,000 in general fund pressure under this FY ’27 proposal,” made up of roughly a $9,000,000 direct general-fund appropriation to ADS and about $5,000,000 in added bill-back authority, which JFO described as recognition of work ADS already performs.

The committee also straw-polled in favor of a structural change that would convert ADS’s single internal service fund into four separate internal service funds. Chair Representative Kathleen James said the committee’s intent is to include the combination of support for the structural change and the funding explanation in the letter; the transcript records a straw-poll tally of 9–0 in favor of the structural change language and a separate 9–0 straw poll in favor of the $14 million description.

Why it matters

The changes would shift how IT work is budgeted and billed…