The Joint Budget Committee on March 20 heard updated revenue figures for a proposed transfer of bioscience income tax withholding and approved staff changes to the transfers bill while directing how any excess funds should be shown in the budget.

Mitch Burmeister, JVC staff analyst, told the committee the department's estimate for the current fiscal year had risen from about $6,400,000 to about $11,000,000, an increase of roughly $4,600,000 that could be transferred to the general fund if the committee updated the transfer bill. "The number started at about 6,400,000.0. That was their estimate. It's actually gone up to about 11,000,000," Burmeister said.

The committee discussed whether to treat the newfound dollars as immediately available for appropriation or to place them into the Controlled Maintenance Trust Fund so they would not appear as excess above the reserve in general fund overviews. Director Harper explained the difference: moving funds into the Controlled Maintenance Trust Fund "would not show up as excess above the reserve in the general fund overviews," whereas leaving them in the general fund would make the money available for appropriation and could be spent in the current or next year without a later action to transfer it out.

Senators and representatives debated alternatives. Representative Serota suggested the Primary Care Fund as a potential destination, while other members said putting the money into the Controlled Maintenance Trust Fund would function as a savings measure and reduce the risk of the dollars being spent during budget week. Senator Mabile cautioned about acting prematurely if amounts could shift in either direction before final balancing.

After discussion the committee made two related motions. First, the committee adopted the staff recommendation to update the Advanced Industries fiscal year 2024-25 transfer amount in the transfers bill to reflect the updated figures from Burmeister's memo and to change the date of the fiscal-year 2025-26 transfer to June 30, 2026; that motion passed six-zero. Second, the committee directed JBC staff to reflect, as a placeholder, any general fund remaining available above $2,500,000 above the reserve requirement as a transfer to the Controlled Maintenance Trust Fund in future legislation; committee members moved that direction during the same discussion and the committee proceeded without recorded objections.

Votes at the committee level were unanimous where recorded and staff said the numbers would be finalized before the long bill was filed. Burmeister cautioned that the numbers were still moving during the balancing process: "by the time I hit print on a memo, it would have been a different number ... this morning is about $670,000 higher than it was yesterday." The committee also asked staff to correct a double-count concern raised during the discussion and to ensure timing and dates in the transfers bill matched actual fiscal-year availability.

The committee's actions update numeric transfers in existing draft legislation and direct staff how to display and reserve any unanticipated excess ahead of the long bill and subsequent drafting of transfer legislation.