House Appropriations Committee holds public hearing on substitute House Bill 2289 amid contested cuts to adult therapy, education and climate-related accounts

The House Appropriations Committee held a public hearing on substitute House Bill 2289 to consider a supplemental operating budget that would realign near-general-fund-outlook (NGFO) resources, employ an $880 million transfer from the Budget Stabilization Account (BSA) in the current biennium with repayment later, and assume $2.1 billion in FY29 NGFO revenues from a proposed tax increase on very high earners.

Mary Monroe, the committee’s budget coordinator, told members the proposal “does not assume the 4 and a half percent, revenue growth assumption in the outlook statutory methodology,” removing nearly $2 billion in previously assumed NGFO resources and leaving projected NGFO ending balances of about $247 million for the current biennium and $566 million at the end of the 4‑year outlook. Monroe described a multi-step mechanism that shifts $239 million from higher‑education building accounts into tuition operating-fee accounts and uses bond refinancing and Climate Commitment Act balances to keep capital projects whole, and said documentation is available on…