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Senators press staff on forecast adjustments, FTE counts and hiring delays
Summary
Members asked where forecast adjustments and cumulative FTE counts will be included, and agency staff explained hiring delays, redeployment pressures and how unused appropriations may 'fall to the bottom line' if positions are not filled quickly.
After staff finished the A1 walkthrough, Senator Rasmussen asked how the human services budget conversation will be handled on the Senate floor and whether the committee has targets or preapproved items. Chair Hoffman said there was not a single target and that policy, integrity and finance work will be handled in separate but coordinated bills before being merged in Finance.
Senator Gruenhagen asked a technical but practical question: "What are the number of new FTEs in this bill, and where are they located?" The chair and Kyle Raymond said the spreadsheet lists individual FTE lines and Raymond offered to assemble a cumulative total. "I can put that together," Raymond said.
Members pressed the accounting question: when appropriated positions are not filled immediately, where does that funding go? Miss Bailey explained the mechanics: appropriations can "fall to the bottom line" during hiring delays, funding is redeployed within agency enterprise pressures, and fiscal notes typically assume a hiring delay of three to four months. She also described extraordinary redeployments and costs incurred to comply with federal work such as provider revalidation.
Senator Asperson asked the committee to scrutinize forecast adjustments because they function like an appropriation. Senator Rasmussen and others said several forecast adjustment bills had been merged in Finance; Kyle Raymond confirmed forecast adjustments were not included in the appropriations article of the A1 draft and historically appeared in separate forecast/health bills.
No decisions were made in the meeting; staff committed to provide cumulative FTE totals and clarify where forecast adjustments will be carried before Friday's markup.
