The House Appropriations Committee heard presentations on three standalone bills — including a minimum wage increase that passed 15-7 and a first-time home buyer savings plan that passed 17-4 or 17-5 — alongside dozens of budget amendment requests from members spanning Medicaid rates, housing, education, infrastructure, and public safety, with no votes taken on the budget amendments.
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An unnamed presenter began introducing a fourth budget item (Item 224, Number 8H) when Chair Lake E. Torian [STT? — referred to as 'Chair Torreon' in transcript] interjected 'I think you've already given me three requests.' The presenter pushed back stating 'Those two were one item,' to which the chair responded 'Oh, no, no, no, no, no,' and ultimately ruled 'you're good for those three,' preventing the presenter from describing Item 224/8H.
“I have military, veteran, law enforcement and first responders who responded to an accident in my district in 2024 where they literally experienced PTSD pulling the broken body of an 8 year old child from a ditch in an accident that involved seven humans who were seriously injured and a little girl who lost her life.”
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Sign in to subscribeGood afternoon and welcome to our House Appropriations Committee meeting. Members, will you answer the roll? Okay. You may close the roll order for today. We have three bills to be presented and then after we have addressed those three bills, then we will begin to hear from members of the House and their request. Ms. Kim. Yes, Mr. Chairman. The first bill before the committee is House Bill 1 from Delegate Ward. This is coming straight to full committee. It is a bill to raise the state's minimum wage. The bill raises the state's minimum wage to 375 per hour starting January 1, 2027 and then raises the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2028. The total budgetary impact for this biennium is $546,000 in FY27 and $13.8 million in FY28. Costs for the bill doubled the out years to reflect a full year of wages at least $15 an hour or higher. The costs are primarily driven by changes to Medicaid reflecting increases for both consumer and agency directed personal care attendance. Mr. Chairman, that's the bill. Move to the report. Mr. Chairman. It's been moved in. Second, that we report. House bill number one. Members,…
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