This week, state agency budget requests for the 2015-17 biennial budget were due. The Department of Administration (DOA) and the Governor’s Office will now spend the several months reviewing agency requests and developing recommendations for the Governor on which request items should be included in the next budget bill.
Consistent with budget directions issued to state agencies earlier this year, most of the requests are related to standard budget adjustments and generally reflect the Governor’s directive to hold general purpose revenue (GPR) spending at or below adjusted base budget levels or cost-to-continue.
Agency request items, approved by the Governor, form the backbone of the next biennial budget. The Governor’s budget initiatives are then added to the skeleton to comprise the budget bill, which will be introduced in January/February of 2015.
State Agency Budget Request Highlights:
Department of Health Services (DHS) requests $760 million GPR for the Medicaid Program. This request is based on estimated enrollment and utilization of Medicaid over the next three years. The request represents the increased cost of fully funding the existing program in the next biennium.
DOA requests a one-time GPR authority of $8 million for Housing and Urban Development (HUD repayment and $7.5 million each year (FY 2015, FY 2016) for a re-estimate of Risk Management Costs.
Department of Justice (DOJ) requests authorization to use costs and fees awarded to the Department by courts in certain cases (cost recovery) to fund litigation-support services.
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) request reflects a 0.43% total increase over the 2014-15 base and includes no GPR increases.
Department of Public Instruction (DPI) request an increase of 0.33% over the base year in the first part of its budget request. Recommendations regarding school funding, the largest GPR funded program in the state, will be submitted to the Governor and the Legislature later this fall. DPI typically waits till mid-November to submit its school funding recommendation in order to include the most current school district data.
Department of Transportation (DOT) requests $3.2 million segregated revenue (SEG, a funding source for dedicated purposes, such as the transportation fund) over the biennium to replace aging license plates and another $1.7 million in SEG to fund increased costs for issuing driver licenses and identification cards. The bulk of the DOT agency request relating to overall transportation funding for state highways and road aids will be submitted later this fall once the department has a better idea of federal funding levels. Federal funding is uncertain at this time and represents 24% of DOT’s total revenues.
Department of Workforce Development (DWD) requests a $7 million GPR reduction in each year of the biennium to reflect lower unemployment insurance interest payments to the federal government.
A copy of state agency budget requests can be found on the DOA website.