Transcript Highlights:

• Able to have contractors work longer.
• So, it’s those contractors that make that.
• Also, I have a quick question related to contractors.
• My concern is how do we vet contractors so that we avoid contractors that might not be quite up to snuff
• We vet the contractors to make sure that they are solid.

Transcript Highlights:

• If you look at the end of the handout I gave you, you can see the source and what's been going on in
• health plan in situation if every single health plan in the<01:02:02.799> state<01:02:03.280>
• day. 2,700 a day paid for with single day. 2,700 a day paid for with tax<01:10:53.920> money<
• 01:34:09.120> commission two sources, the governor's commission two sources, the governor's commission
• >> The training right now, every single >> The training right now, every single optometry

Keywords: 1191, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• years since its inception, the Chapter 90 program has established itself as the essential funding source
• So oftentimes we have to supplement the difference with borrowing or other funding sources, which can
• The funds are often the primary source of support to repair, maintain, and improve local roadways and
• The funds are often the primary source of support for municipal transportation projects, particularly
• for smaller or rural communities that lack a substantial local tax base or other funding sources to

Keywords: 995, all

Summary: The Joint Committee on Transportation held its first hearing of the session on H. 53, Governor Healey’s Chapter 90 proposal to increase state funding for municipal roads, bridges, sidewalks, and culverts. Committee chairs outlined the hybrid hearing process and invited testimony from municipal officials, labor groups, regional planning organizations, contractors, and administration officials. Across the hearing, speakers consistently supported the bill, emphasizing long-deferred maintenance, inflation in construction costs, climate-related flooding, and the need for more predictable, multi-year funding so cities and towns can plan projects and take advantage of the construction season. The administration described H. 53 as part of a broader $8 billion transportation package, proposing to raise annual Chapter 90 funding from $200 million to $300 million for five years, with the additional $100 million distributed by road mileage to better support rural and small communities. They also highlighted $200 million for culverts and small bridges, plus other transportation investments, and said the five-year authorization would provide certainty for municipal capital planning. Municipal witnesses from places including Carlisle, Beverly, Granby, Hatfield, Newton, Nahant, Gardner, Beckett, and Yarmouth described local road and culvert backlogs, rising asphalt costs, and the difficulty of maintaining infrastructure on limited local budgets. Labor and industry witnesses from the AFL-CIO and MAPA said the bill would support good-paying jobs and provide stability for contractors and producers. The MBTA Advisory Board and regional planning representatives also backed the proposal, noting the connection between local roads and the broader transportation system. Committee members asked questions about the road-mile formula, culvert needs, asphalt costs, and the rationale for a five-year authorization. No votes were taken during the hearing, and the committee adjourned after testimony concluded.

Transcript Highlights:

• A single capitated rate of risk margin.
• That's part of our oversight for our contractor. We look at all the surveys.
• That's part of our oversight for<00:28:45.520> our<00:28:45.679> contractor.
• We look at all the for our contractor.
• literally hundreds of different sources literally hundreds of different sources to<01:09:07.199>

Keywords: 958, all

Summary: The Budget Review Subcommittee on Health and Family Services met in person, approved the October 15 minutes, and began with a moment of silence following a Louisville UPS plane explosion that was described as a local tragedy affecting many families and first responders. The main presentation was an overview of Kentucky’s Medicaid non-emergency medical transportation (NMT) program from the Department for Medicaid Services and the Transportation Cabinet. Witnesses explained that NMT is a federally required Medicaid benefit, administered by the Transportation Cabinet under a risk-based capitated model, with eligibility limited to Medicaid members traveling to medically necessary, Medicaid-covered services and who lack access to other transportation. They also described exclusions, including certain KCHIP, QMB, and PACE members, and outlined the brokered regional structure, call center operations, scheduling rules, vehicle and driver oversight, complaint handling, and rider surveys. The presenters reported that NMT handled more than 3.1 million trips in state fiscal year 2024, with over 1.38 million trips already recorded in October, and said customer satisfaction surveys were high. They said the FY 2025-26 contract total is about $360.6 million, with monthly per-member capitation rates set by region through an actuarial process and approved by CMS. They emphasized that payments are tied to monthly Medicaid enrollment and that the state draws down federal funds for the exact amount paid, with no leftover balance. They also said most NMT use comes from adult day centers and rehabilitative care such as dialysis. Members questioned the witnesses about how quality metrics and contract standards are set, whether the state had explored alternatives such as Uber Health or other integrated models, and how utilization was calculated. The witnesses said contract requirements are developed collaboratively by Medicaid Services, the Transportation Cabinet, and other agencies, and that studies of other models generally found higher costs and lower approval ratings, with additional research on a hybrid model expected by the end of the year. They clarified that one figure reflected the share of Medicaid members with registered vehicles, while another reflected actual NMT users, and they defended the capitated structure as shifting financial risk to brokers rather than the state. Representative Fleming also raised concerns about oversight, reporting, and the apparent gap between budgeted and contracted amounts, asking whether any unused funds would return to general funds; the discussion ended before a final answer was given.

Transcript Highlights:

• Legislature isn't requiring them to report comprehensively their capital renewal spending by fund source
• encompasses nearly 6,000 buildings and 163 million square feet of space, with a presence in every single
• I was at UC Merced for a year, and every single classroom was used as a study space in the evening by
• Sometimes you can get a contractor to say, at this cost, it's an absolute that we move forward.
• But without Cal Food, campuses lose our main source of support.

Summary: The committee’s first major discussion focused on higher education facilities across UC, CSU, and the community colleges, with Chair Alvarez framing the issue as a final budget hearing before the May Revise. The LAO presented findings that campuses have grown substantially in buildings and square footage, while classroom and lab utilization remains below legislative standards and deferred maintenance backlogs continue to rise. The LAO also emphasized that the state and segments lack comprehensive data on capital renewal spending and recommended better reporting, clearer funding targets, and long-term planning for renewal and maintenance. UC, CSU, and community college representatives each described large five-year capital plans, aging facilities, seismic and deferred maintenance needs, and the role of student housing, while noting that construction costs are rising faster than inflation. Members questioned the segments about debt service, utilization rates, and how projects are prioritized. UC said its debt service tied to state support is about $665 million annually and described a $30 billion five-year capital financial plan, including housing, medical centers, and building renewal. CSU said it has about $31 billion in five-year needs and more than $8 billion in deferred maintenance, with funding coming from a mix of state-related and one-time sources since the state shifted capital responsibility to CSU. Community colleges said their unmet facilities needs total about $33.5 billion and explained their use of a scoring matrix and FUSION system to rank projects. The chair and members pressed all three systems to better distinguish between projects that are truly shovel-ready and those that are long-term needs, and discussed whether facilities condition data, total cost of ownership, and more standardized metrics should guide future bond proposals. The committee then turned to Proposition 2 and the Governor’s proposed community college capital outlay projects. The Department of Finance said Prop. 2 provides $1.5 billion for community colleges and that the Governor’s budget proposes 29 projects, with two continuing Prop. 51 projects also included. The LAO supported the overall use of the funds but raised concerns about the current 65/35 split between modernization and growth, the unusually large share of gymnasium projects, and some scoring metrics that favor larger campuses and certain regions. Community college officials said the scoring system was developed through participatory governance and would take one to two years to revise, but they supported the funding and agreed to follow up on questions about project categories and the rationale for the weighting. Members also suggested giving more weight to modernization, regional access, and intersegmental or collaborative projects. A final item addressed the CalKids program. The Department of Finance proposed $56,000 ongoing General Fund for three positions, while the LAO recommended approving two positions but rejecting a manager position until the current $7.5 million marketing campaign is evaluated. ScholarShare’s executive director said CalKids has enrolled more than 5 million children, with nearly 600,000 claims and over $45 million distributed, and argued that additional staff and outreach are needed to reach a goal of 1 million claimed scholarships by the end of 2025 and to implement AB 2808. Members asked about marketing effectiveness, data sharing, and eligibility rules, and the program said it is expanding partnerships with Cradle to Career and CSAC. No final vote was taken in the hearing, and the chair indicated the facilities item would be held open.

Transcript Highlights:

• It wasn't necessarily for a contractor to come in and try to sneak in under the wire.
• Additionally, what we do with EDR is send our financials every single year. Similar scenario.
• There is no guaranteed funding source.
• The wetlands are just further away from where the source water is.
• Can you please address the funding source?

Bills: S0598, S0934, S1260, S1300, S1452, S1510, S1566, S1580, S1668, S7034

Keywords: funeral homes, cemetery law, cremation, embalmer, funeral director, preneed contract, preneed funeral, human remains, unclaimed cremated remains, disposition of remains, hospice, palliative care, end-of-life care, direct disposal, mortuary science, funeral service arts, licensure by endorsement, cemetery license, contiguous acres, consumer services

Transcript Highlights:

• Madam Chair, members of the committee, Jason Espinoza, here on behalf of the Associated General Contractors
• Association, the Mechanical Contractors Association, and the Sheet Metal Contractors Association.
• And from the electrical contractors association perspective, this bill provides predictable, sustained
• We have some of the multiple-discipline programs like Associated General Contractors and ABC.
• Representative Garcia took every single question I had. So I'm just going to make up another one.

Keywords: 996, all

Summary: The House Labor, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee met to hear House Bill 7, sponsored by Representative Garrett and Representative Cates, which would continue and support apprenticeship and workforce training funding. The sponsors and the Department of Workforce Solutions described strong growth in apprenticeship participation, especially in the building trades, and said the fund has helped expand programs while maintaining high retention and employment outcomes. They emphasized that the bill would provide predictable, sustained investment in skilled labor needed for construction, infrastructure, and other growing sectors. Supportive testimony came from contractors, chambers of commerce, trade unions, and a small business owner, all of whom said apprenticeship funding is essential to meeting workforce shortages and keeping workers in New Mexico. Committee members asked about program demographics, geographic distribution, rural participation, reentry and high school dropout data, and how apprenticeships connect to displaced workers from energy and industrial closures. The secretary explained that the department uses Rapid Response and economic transition programs for layoffs and closures, and also surveys current energy workers to gauge retraining interest. Several members praised the bill’s return on investment and retention of workers in the state, while Representative de Rassas suggested adding more public transparency and performance metrics. Representative Ortiz asked about future funding after 2031 and whether the program could scale with more money. After discussion, Representative Hall moved a do pass, Representative de Rassas seconded, and the committee approved House Bill 7 with no opposition. The chair also announced upcoming committee meetings and asked members to consent to sharing contact information for committee purposes.

Transcript Highlights:

• We do not want to waste your time today giving every single reason.
• That contractor then schedules an inspector. Hire a licensed contractor to pull the permit.
• That contractor then schedules an inspector. hire a licensed contractor to pull the permit that contractor
• Sorry, lead opposition: Rebecca May, on behalf of the Contractors State License Board.
• Because it is California, we do believe in using licensed contractors to do quality work.

Keywords: 987, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• Every single time I said, 'I want immediate appointments, please.' Was left hanging for a month.
• Every single time I said, “I want immediate appointments, please—somebody who’s qualified in suicidal
• really, really protective of mental health and substance use disorder care throughout the whole continuum
• really, really protective of mental health and substance use disorder care throughout the whole continuum
• So I think those are really important and those are questions that this such. the whole continuum of

Summary: The Assembly Health Committee held an informational hearing on Kaiser Permanente’s behavioral health care system, focusing on Department of Managed Health Care enforcement actions, Kaiser’s corrective action work plan, and testimony from patients, advocates, and union representatives. DMHC officials reviewed a long history of complaints, surveys, fines, and settlements involving Kaiser’s access to behavioral health services, including deficiencies found in 2012 and 2016, a 2022 non-routine survey, and a 2023 settlement that imposed a $50 million penalty and required $150 million in community investments over five years. DMHC said it continues to monitor Kaiser through quarterly meetings, complaint review, follow-up surveys, and a reimbursement process for members who could not obtain timely in-network care. Committee members pressed DMHC on what “timely access” and continuity of care mean in practice, how virtual care and group therapy fit into the standards, and what triggers a non-routine survey. DMHC said initial behavioral health appointments generally should not take more than two weeks, urgent care should be within days, and follow-up care within 10 days, with out-of-network care required when plans cannot meet standards. Officials also said Kaiser’s initial corrective action work plan lacked detail, but the revised plan was accepted and will be tracked through quarterly reporting and possible additional enforcement if Kaiser fails to comply. The second panel featured testimony from a Kaiser enrollee, a behavioral health policy expert, a Kaiser therapist, and the NUHW president. The enrollee described serious delays and inadequate treatment for his daughter after a suicide attempt, while the therapist and union leader said Kaiser’s behavioral health system is understaffed, relies too heavily on short appointments, group therapy, and webinars, and treats behavioral health as less important than medical-surgical care. They argued Kaiser’s one-appointment-at-a-time scheduling rule and limited treatment time violate parity requirements and harm continuity of care. Several members criticized Kaiser for not appearing at the hearing and said the testimony underscored the need for stronger oversight, clearer metrics, and faster remedies for patients.

Transcript Highlights:

• Doing so helps ensure staff or third-party contractors perform tasks consistently, helps managers hold
• So we are putting in a system a per-single-student, not a per-thousand-student.
• system, manipulating it, and putting it back into the source system.
• The new platform that we are moving to, we intend to utilize contractors to a much less degree.
• We have an approved contractor. We've got an approved budget.

Keywords: 904, all

Summary: The committee heard a State Auditor’s Office performance audit on OSPI’s school apportionment system, which distributes K-12 funding to districts. Auditors said the system and its underlying 2008-era infrastructure are outdated, unstable, inefficient, and at high risk of errors or failure. They also found weak controls over data input, documentation, oversight, and monitoring, with heavy reliance on a small number of staff and vendor knowledge. In limited testing of three districts, the system calculated 2023–24 funding correctly, but auditors identified small discrepancies between state budget inputs and underlying statutory language and said broader system risks remain unresolved. JLARC members asked about the scope of the district testing, whether smaller districts face greater risk, the meaning of the funding discrepancies, and whether the system could support a future change to a simpler per-student funding formula. Auditors said the discrepancies were small but could compound into millions statewide, and that the audit did not evaluate broader policy questions or alternative system owners. They recommended OSPI modernize or replace the system and address current control weaknesses while the new platform is developed. OSPI officials largely agreed that the current platform needs replacement and said a feasibility study completed in 2024 found the system at catastrophic risk of failure. They clarified that the Legislature had approved up to $16 million in the state IT pool for the project, but that funding is released through gated oversight and not all of it had yet been appropriated for the current biennium. OSPI disputed the auditor’s characterization of some rounding and budget-law issues, saying the calculations were consistent with agency rules and legislative inputs, and explained that some manual workarounds are used to handle newer statutory requirements. One member of the public testified in support of modernizing the system and strengthening controls. The committee then adjourned.

Transcript Highlights:

• We have contractors that we have.
• As we add more and more intermittent renewable sources, having energy storage...
• And so I understand the legislature's need to replace that source of income.
• The rules for reliability are imposed on every single connection to the grid.
• And Representative, we haven't, because, again, community solar would be a generation source.

Transcript Highlights:

• But you want to do this not because the contractor broke the law, not because the contractor failed to
• Of what the federal government has hired the contractor to do, you don't like what the contractor does
• Every single one. Every single dollar they're entitled to under S2. Every single one.
• Let's be clear, every single district could have received every single dollar they were entitled to.
• Let's be clear, every single district could have received every single dollar they were entitled to,

Keywords: 1146, all

Transcript Highlights:

• Well, that's where contractors make their real money is when you get into change orders, right?
• So we'll hire a team of contractors to help communities that already want to regionalize.
• So we're going to pay for those contractors. We know we can keep the cost down.
• , and one of those funding sources is local funding.
• They don't have to go through the oversight of a contractor.

Transcript Highlights:

• -source income is taxed in Minnesota compared to international-source income, and how does that lead
• So since 2014, Minnesota has adopted a single sales factor of apportionment.
• <00:07:27.880> income differences between how US-source income differences between how US-source
• <00:07:39.560> At single sales factor of apportionment.
• At single sales factor of apportionment.

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• His parents, Patrick and Donna, and his brothers, Ryan and Tommy, Scott has become the source of pride
• game and setting the new record for the... ...correct responses in a single game and setting the new
• Across New Jersey, thousands of people choose to work as independent contractors.
• The existence of this bill is truly an acknowledgement that the current independent contractor system
• These are independent, small contractors that represent many firms and many opportunities for people

Keywords: 1146, all

Transcript Highlights:

• <00:04:34.120> wage classified independent contractors wage classified independent contractors
• misclassified as independent contractors misclassified as independent contractors or<00:15:55.199
• those uh 15,000 contractors those uh 15,000 contractors approximately<00:47:11.640> are<00
• addressing the problematic contractors addressing the problematic contractors that<00:49:03.599>
• <01:27:15.360> we these reasons um our contractors we these reasons um our contractors we

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• The witness explained that PTSD is arguably either a single event in the past or cumulative trauma, and
• For example, with carpal tunnel syndrome, there is not a single day on which you develop it; it comes
• <00:26:02.480> Is<00:26:02.640> it single event in the past?
• Is it single event in the past? Is it cumulative<00:26:03.360> trauma?
• To try and get some of this clarified, that would be one source I think would be quite good.

Keywords: 1189, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• 733 active vendor contracts and adopted 277 agency active vendor agreements for alternate contract sources
• Unless it's otherwise exempted by statute, such as a single source or an emergency purchase or medical
• These enterprise-wide agreements include both state term contracts and alternate contract sources.
• These alternate contract sources are adopted from other state entities or governmental entities within
• This includes vendor contractor site visits, holding business review meetings and onboarding discussions

Summary: The Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability met with a quorum present and first took up SB 268, a public records exemption bill for public officers. Senator Brodeur explained the bill on behalf of Senator Jones, saying it would protect partial home addresses, phone numbers, and certain family information for the governor, cabinet members, and other elected officials because of threats and harassment against public servants. An amendment narrowing and clarifying the definition of public officer and the process for claiming the exemption was adopted without objection. Chair Fine and Senator Brodeur both spoke in support of the bill, citing personal experiences with threats and the need to protect officials and their families. CS for SB 268 was then reported favorably by roll call vote. The committee then heard a presentation from Brandon Spencer, Director of State Purchasing and Chief Procurement Officer at the Department of Management Services, on state agency procurement and contracting practices, including IT procurements. He described the state’s procurement structure, including state term contracts, alternate contract sources, and agency procurements, and said the division now manages more than 960 enterprise-wide agreements, with that number continuing to grow. He also highlighted that roughly 21% of purchase order spend is on IT services, discussed statutory requirements for IT procurements, and said the division is working with Florida Digital Service to improve oversight, training, vendor accountability, and procurement options. No committee action followed the presentation, and the meeting adjourned after no further business was raised.

Transcript Highlights:

• Sometimes we do employ a contractor to do repairs.
• We actually know we are going to have an emergency every single year now.
• Here in the Southwest, we have bottlenecks at every single step.
• When we have a single species That we look at, that single species, and we, for whatever Reason, prioritize
• that single species over the people who live in the communities.

Transcript Highlights:

• So we work with the contractors, engineers, and all that stuff.
• So it's the balance of information sources I think we need to look at. Mr. Gallion: Thank you, Mr.
• But, you know, there are differences in, you know, as he said, we have to get to that source.
• There's no roadblocks on that because it's a single source of truth for the data that it's coming from
• Single source of truth for the data that it's coming from, and it's not an audit.

Keywords: 908, all