Lawmakers Begin Process of Approving $1.1 Billion Budget for FY2024/2025

With less than one week until the start of a new fiscal year, the 35th Legislature has begun the work needed to ensure government departments and agencies have access to funding for the next 12 months. On Wednesday, the Committee on Budget, Appropriations, and Finance met to begin approving the raft of pending appropriation bills totalling approximately $1,100,000,000.‌ Wednesday’s meeting followed significant “clean-up work,” reported the committee’s chair, Sen. Donna Frett-Gregory. “We've put in a lot of work in the FY2025 budget,” she said. She lamented that while the executive budget sent down to the Legislature was delivered on time, it “required a lot of work.” “The projections that came to us were very aggressive and not necessarily in line with what we've seen historically or… with our current conditions,” Senator Frett-Gregory noted. She expressed disappointment in the decision by the Office of Management and Budget to reduce funding for “some very important programs that we...