Note: This year IFF rated maintenance bills according to a more refined system. This is an enhancement bill, and will be rated as a standalone bill. IFF will only consider enhancement line items in these ratings. This means that FTP reductions passed in maintenance legislation will not be evaluated here, among other things.

Bill Description: House Bill 907 is an enhancement of $1,877,300 and 0.00 new full-time positions for the DIvision of Career Technical Education (CTE)  for fiscal year 2027. This legislation appropriates a total of $108,585,900 and 567.14 full-time positions to the agency.

Rating: -2

Does this budget incur any wasteful spending among discretionary funds, including new line items? Conversely, does this budget contain any provisions that serve to reduce spending where possible (i.e. base reductions, debt reconciliation, etc.)?

This legislation authorizes onetime spending for CTE of $1,887,300, adding additional expenditures after last year’s (FY26) onetime spending of $50,000. Onetime spending is often even more volatile than ongoing spending, which is to be expected due to these onetime expenses generally being utilized for projects or capital outlay. This also calls for special scrutiny and discernment.

The onetime expenditure solely consists of a restoration of the JFAC 2% additional reduction ($1,877,300 GF). This represents an unwarranted expenditure, especially so in a deficit year. Further, almost all agencies faced the additional 2% JFAC holdback, and agencies asking for exemptions or restorations do a disservice to agencies that accepted the entire 5% holdback.

(-1)
This legislation also restores the 1% rescission JFAC enacted for FY26. As stated above, agencies that ask for exemptions or restorations do a disservice to agencies that accepted the entire 4% holdback in FY26.

(-1)