House Appropriations Committee reviews draft appropriations spreadsheet, flags $213.5M in above‑governor requests

The House Appropriations Committee met March 9 to review a draft master spreadsheet consolidating committee letter recommendations and other above‑governor budget requests. Staff told members the document is still in draft and not posted publicly, and urged caution because many line items are duplicates of requests already received through testimony or other committee letters.

Committee staff said the consolidated draft shows a preliminary unduplicated set of new requests totaling about $10.7 million, and an aggregated above‑governor total of roughly $213.5 million when duplicate entries and committee letters are included. "What you have in front of you today represents a tentative unduplicated ... total of 10.7," staff said, adding that some committee letters (notably House Human Services) were still under review and would likely increase the overall total.

Why it matters: the spreadsheet is the committee's working map for prioritizing requests as the Legislature approaches crossover. Members must decide which above‑governor asks to endorse, and staff said JFO and the Agency of Human Services (AHS) will verify any items that may be eligible for global commitment funding once the committee ranks its priorities.

Members pressed staff on presentation and provenance. Staff explained that grayed cells mark requests that duplicate earlier submissions, while non‑grayed cells represent unduplicated requests that together account for the $10.7 million figure. Several entries came from written testimony rather than oral hearings; staff used Salvation Farms as an example, noting its written request asked for $100,000 and the committee letter recommended $50,000.

Global commitment and verification: committee staff described yellow‑highlighted cells as potentially eligible for global commitment and said verifying the state/federal split (for example, FMAP) across multiple AHS funding streams is time‑consuming. The staff proposal is for members to rank priorities first; JFO and AHS would then confirm final general‑fund shares for top items. "For those global commitment items that rise to the top ... it would make the most sense for JFO to then work with AHS on finalizing and confirming the global commitment split," staff said.

On reversions, members queried whether committee letters that "oppose reversions" should be treated as funding asks. The committee debated whether opposing a governor reversion that would return prior appropriations to the general fund is equivalent to a request to retain funding for a program; staff said treating oppositions as asks complicates the math because offsets must be found.

Process and next steps: the chair previewed a prioritization or ranking exercise in which members will vote on top items; after that JFO will continue verification. Staff said duplicated requests will be consolidated in the next iteration and bills that carry appropriations will be added as they are heard during crossover. The committee scheduled further meetings and staff follow‑up, including a health transformation grant report at the next session.

The committee did not take formal votes during this meeting. Staff committed to double‑checking the origin of several committee‑letter entries that members described as surprising and to return with updated spreadsheets and clarifications.