Senate Appropriations

Friday, April 17, 2026·1h 6m·▶ Watch / Listen

Senate Appropriations cleared a full slate of bills, but the school-finance measure SB26-135 broke the calm — the K-12 funding bill advanced on a party-line 4-3 vote after extended, pointed questioning over whether it actually guarantees higher teacher pay. Everything else moved unanimously.

Key Actions

·Parity for Non-Opioid Pain Management DrugsPassed

+ 5 more actions

Notable Quotes

“The bill does not explicitly State anywhere that the state share cannot be reduced, the bill creates a funding mechanism to put additional money on top of the school finance factor, and so would not be supplementing or supplanting this. Or it would be supplementing and not supplanting.”
Pierce Lively, Office of Legislative Legal Services · witness — Legislative counsel's answer to Kirkmeyer's central challenge — that the bill contains no guarantee against the state cutting its own share, the mechanism at the heart of the party-line split.

+ 4 more quotes

Votes

Referred to Committee of the WholeAction

Yes (7)Julie Gonzales, Barbara Kirkmeyer, Chris Kolker, Larry Liston, Byron Pelton, Jeff Bridges, Judy Amabile

Referred to Committee of the WholeAction

Yes (7)Julie Gonzales, Barbara Kirkmeyer, Chris Kolker, Larry Liston, Byron Pelton, Jeff Bridges, Judy Amabile

Referred to Committee of the Whole and with a recommendation that it be placed on the consent calendarAction

Yes (7)Julie Gonzales, Barbara Kirkmeyer, Chris Kolker, Larry Liston, Byron Pelton, Jeff Bridges, Judy Amabile

Referred to Committee of the WholeAction

Yes (7)Julie Gonzales, Barbara Kirkmeyer, Chris Kolker, Larry Liston, Byron Pelton, Jeff Bridges, Judy Amabile

Referred to Committee of the WholeAction

Yes (4)Julie Gonzales, Chris Kolker, Jeff Bridges, Judy Amabile

No (3)Barbara Kirkmeyer, Larry Liston, Byron Pelton

Referred to Committee of the Whole and with a recommendation that it be placed on the consent calendarAction

Yes (7)Julie Gonzales, Barbara Kirkmeyer, Chris Kolker, Larry Liston, Byron Pelton, Jeff Bridges, Judy Amabile

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TranscriptPreview

We're about to start. Are we ready? All right. The Senate Committee on Appropriations will come to order. Ms. Kanagaraja, please call the roll. Senators Gonzalez. Present. Kirkmeyer. Here. Kolker. Here. Listed here. Pelton Bee. Here. Mr. Vice Chair. Let's rock and roll. Madam Chair. Here. Barely. Okay, we have a few bills before us today. We're going to start with Senate Bill 6. Senator Kirkmeyer. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move Senate Bill 26006 and that's it. I'm not moving the J Amendment, and I will just state that the department added on or the. Yeah, the Department of Regulatory Agencies. Dora added on a 2FTE. It's less than $20,000. I think they can do this within existing resources. Okay, committee members, any questions for the bill sponsors? Seeing none. Ms. Conagaraja, please poll the committee on the adoption of Senate Bill 6. Senators Gonzalez, aye. Kirkmeyer, Aye. Kolker, Aye. Liston. Aye. Pelton. Aye. Mr. Vice Chair. Aye. Madam Chair, Aye. And we're not putting it on the consent calendar because it didn't get out of committee unanimously. Next up, we have. Oh, so that bill passes on a. Did I say that already? That bill passes unanimously. Next…

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