The House Minority Caucus received a detailed briefing from JBC member Rep. Taggart on a supplemental budget package covering approximately 22 departments and totaling roughly $175–178 million over the budget approved last April, with the largest driver being a $134 million HCFA/Medicaid request that Taggart himself voted against at the JBC level due to the department cutting provider rates without first seeking internal efficiencies. No votes were recorded during the caucus briefing, with individual item outcomes remaining unclear from the transcript across all items discussed, including HB 26-1151 for the Department of Corrections supplemental, Early Childhood, Department of Education, HCFA/Medicaid, and K-12 mid-year adjustment, as well as an informational discussion of the amendment process for supplemental bills, with the session serving primarily as an informational overview of the supplemental package.
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Rep. Taggart stated he voted NO on the HCFA supplemental because 'I don't think the department did enough' in looking internally for efficiencies before cutting provider rates, saying 'damn it, I want them to look at it.' Rep. Bradley described the cuts as 'a slap in the face' to providers and raised concerns about cascading rate reductions from commercial insurers. Rep. Bradfield argued the cuts are 'driving a nail in that coffin' for rural hospitals operating at 'a razor thin margin.'
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“I have a basic philosophy and that is before I hurt ever a consumer on a program, I'm going to look internally to see how I can do things more efficiently and cost effectively. That's the first step. I am always going to take because I don't want to ever hurt a consumer if I don't have to. And in this particular case, I don't think the department did enough and that troubles me.”
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Sign in to subscribeHere. Bradley. Here. Brooks caldwell. Here. Gonzalez. Buenos dias. Garcia, sander. Artsook. Here. Taggart. Here. Winner. Here. Luke. Kelsey. Here. Sukla. Here. Slaw flinell. Here. Weinberg. Johnson. Here. Richardson. Here. Bradfield. Degraff. Luck. Here. So for. All right, we have a quorum at this time. We will turn the floor over to Representative Taggart. He will run through things. He does have a hard stop. You said it at noon, correct? All right, so let's hold the questions. If you can run through, give us the big picture and then we can follow up with that majority caucus. Thank you all for being I'm sorry, say again who was speaking. All right. This is the House minority caucus meeting. The majority is upstairs in the library. All right, Rep. Taggart, floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Caucus Chair. I hope everybody brought their books. It's labeled Supplemental narrative fiscal year 2526, and that's what I'm going to be referring to throughout, throughout the discussion. I am going to go over a quick overview on page three and then I'm going to go through about five of the major departments because trying to go through all 22 departments would be difficult.…
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