Fiscal committees meet to discuss Governor McKee’s 2024 revised budget

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — With the 2024 legislative session underway, Rhode Island state legislators analyzed Governor Dan McKee’s revised budget and looked ahead to their expectations for next year.

Hundreds of pages of the Governor’s budget were condensed into a 50-page PowerPoint breakdown for legislators Tuesday afternoon.

Rhode Island lawmakers on fiscal committees will have months to review Governor McKee’s 2024 budget revisions, as well as expectations for the next year’s budget.

But their decisions are made a little easier with an expected surplus this year that they’re hoping carries into 2025.

“You based the budget on about $370 million of surplus funds,” said House Fiscal Advisor Sharon Reynolds Ferland. “When all the dust settled on expenditures and FEMA reimbursements, the expenditures were less, and that gives you a little bit more money to work with for this year.”

One key point from Tuesday’s breakdown was that states are moving past COVID funding and dropping some funding back down to pre-pandemic levels.

There are topics to be addressed in a range of fields, including education, healthcare and staffing problems across the board.

“In case you haven’t detected a theme,” Reynolds Ferland said. “These vacancies are a persistent problem.”

“The levels that you’re authorizing – although you don’t always fully fund these authorizations – are in the 15,000 range,” Reynolds Ferland continued. “There’s currently around 1,700 vacancies.”

The session also touched on some of the promises McKee made during his State of the State.

“On the housing front, we’ve provided you with housing reports and will continue to do so,” Reynolds Ferland said. “There’s $100 million being proposed for a new GO bond. The Governor continues to pre-fund the low-income housing tax credit you created last year, you set aside 20 million. The governor added another four.”

Some possible problems moving forward were also addressed.

“A year ago, there was a recession in the forecast, now it’s just below trend growth,” Reynolds Ferland explained. “Doesn’t sound as serious.”

“If there’s a solution made for the Washington Bridge that is not in these estimates,” Reynolds Ferland added. “So, there are things that would need to move around.”

The finance committees will hear from the Department of Health in February and the bond proposal for the state archives project later in the month, as budget discussions continue.