JFAC setting budgets, holding off on shifting fund balances for now

As the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee convenes this morning, it’s scheduled to set agendas for Fish & Game, the Office of Species Conservation, the state Liquor Division, the Historical Society, the Commission for Libraries, the Commission for Hispanic Affairs and the state lottery. The governor’s budget for the liquor division includes a fund shift of $8 million from an excess cash balance, but JFAC won’t take that up this morning; it’s delaying consideration of shifts from agency cash balances as a budget-balancing maneuver, after the House GOP leadership objected Friday when the joint committee was in the midst of debating a shift from an unused balance at the Industrial Commission.