Senate panel adopts amendments to state government appropriations bill, approves public broadcasting and OIG adjustments

Senator Xiong presented House File 4591 to the Senate Finance Committee on May 15, describing it as the state government appropriations portion of a global agreement and noting several funding and policy items.

Xiong said the bill includes $1,825,000 in grants for public television stations and $100,000 for AMPERS public radio grants, an appropriation to support formation of the Melissa and Mark Hortman State Park working group, and adjustments to funding for the Office of Inspector General. The bill also contains technical provisions and two articles that change licensing exam requirements for the Board of Barber Examiners and the Board of Cosmetologist Examiners to reduce barriers to entering those professions.

Committee members adopted amendment A8, which was placed on at the desk, and later adopted A9 and A10 by voice vote after staff explained the amendments. Miss James identified several sections of the bill that were not previously heard in State Government committee, pointing members to specific page and section numbers (including page 7 and article 2 sections referenced in committee materials) and noting a provision on page 12 (section 14) establishing an effective date for compensation counsel to set the inspector general's salary.

Mr. Erickson (fiscal staff) walked members through a time‑stamped spreadsheet of change items, noting the bill's reconciliation and line items: a $1,000,000 savings from cancellation of an unused appropriation to MMB to help stand up the Department of Children, Youth, and Families; additional OIG funding, funds for education data sharing, a reduction to DHS appropriations with corresponding federal FFP impacts, and $561,000 for MNIT services for agency data sharing. Xiong closed by asking for the committee to send the bill to the floor; the committee approved the motion by voice vote.