Now that the budget has been introduced, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau will take 3-4 weeks to prepare a comprehensive analysis of the bill for the Joint Finance Committee (JFC). Starting in mid-March, JFC will schedule committee hearings and invite selected agency heads to appear and testify before the committee on their respective agency budgets. Public hearings on the bill are expected to be held in 3-5 locations throughout the state, starting in March and completed by mid-April.
Post agency and public hearings, JFC will be meeting several days each week through the end of May to take votes on various aspects of the bill. At the end of the JFC budget process, all JFC modifications to the Governor’s bill are incorporated in a Substitute Amendment and sent to the full Legislature for floor votes in each house.
The Legislature is expected to take the bill up in June and send their final product to the Governor by the end of the month. The Governor generally completes veto review within 30 days of receiving the bill before signing it into law. Given that Republicans control both houses, we anticipate they will stay largely on track with this schedule.