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JFAC approves FY2027 maintenance budget package after hours of debate over across‑the‑board cuts
Summary
The Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee approved a full series of FY2027 maintenance budgets and associated language, moving multiple packets to the floor with 'due pass' recommendations after extended debate about blanket reductions and risks to services.
The Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee voted to advance a comprehensive set of FY2027 maintenance budgets to the floor Wednesday after lengthy debate over the committee’s recent decision to apply additional across‑the‑board reductions to agency budgets.
Chairman Tanner opened the meeting by calling the roll and confirming a quorum. Legislative Services analysts presented a series of packets — starting with a green‑sheet update on revenue changes and moves tied to House Bill 559 — before walking members through agency‑by‑agency maintenance budgets and proposed language.
Keith Bybee, Division Manager of Budget and Policy Analysis, summarized calculations the committee used to build the legislative branch maintenance budget and recommended clarifying language for how personnel benefit cost rates were computed.
The committee adopted the legislative branch packet and other maintenance bills after floor debate and recorded roll calls. The clerk reported combined tallies at several points (for example, one legislative packet vote was recorded as 15 ayes and 5 nays and another packet vote as 17 ayes and 3 nays in later business); in each case the chair announced the motion had passed and the packet would go forward with a due‑pass recommendation.
Much of the morning’s discussion centered on the committee’s recent statewide direction to staff — a mix of the governor’s recommended 3% ongoing reduction plus an additional variable reduction applied in some cases. Senator Cook pressed the point that the additional cuts risked eliminating positions that perform legally required services, arguing the committee was ‘‘gambling millions for a couple of thousand dollar cuts’’ and urging the body to reconsider broad cuts in favor of targeted reductions. Co‑chairs and other members replied that the statewide decisions were intended to provide a structural baseline and that working groups would examine enhancements and adjustments in coming weeks.
Other packets taken up and advanced with due‑pass recommendations included public safety, natural resources, health and human services, economic development, judicial branch, constitutional officers, general government, the State Board of Education functional area, and public school support. Analysts highlighted where agencies moved positions to dedicated funds, where nonstandard language would require additional reporting to JFAC, and where members had requested further work in committee working groups.
The committee also deliberated specific language items — for example, new reporting requirements for Department of Health and Welfare transactions exceeding $1 million and a substitute provision on using reserve balances to avoid raising group insurance premiums — before adopting language to be added to the maintenance bill packet.
Chairman Tanner adjourned the session and said JFAC will reconvene Monday at 8 a.m. with remaining items.
The committee’s actions were procedural: they constituted due‑pass recommendations for the maintenance bills and adopted a mix of standard and nonstandard budget language; no final appropriations are effective until the bills complete both chambers and are enacted.
