The House approved amendments the Senate made to the state budget and sent the $10.18 billion budget to the governor’s desk.

HB 2 creates a $10.18 billion Fiscal Year 25 state budget, which is a 6.5 percent increase in recurring funds from the previous budget.

The Senate Finance Committee made several changes to the version that passed the House, including moving $470,000 from the Resource Management Division’s Personnel Services and Employee Benefits to the Environment Health Division’s Personnel Services and Employee Benefits and adding more than $2.5 million in Department of Finance and Administration funds from the American Rescue Plan to the Appropriation Contingency Fund to replace lost revenue during the COVID-19 public health crisis.

Related: Senate passes budget, goes back to House for concurrence

During the legislative interim committee discussions, the Legislative Council discussed a draft report and its appendices on legislator staffing at a Legislative Council meeting in October.

One of the report’s proposed models would allow 56 partisan staff distributed across 12 regional offices where they will support legislators with administrative assistance and community engagement job duties.

The estimated cost of this model would be about $7.28 million annually which includes staff costs, overhead, IT/security, furniture, space, utilities and per diem/mileage, according to the report.

HB 2 allows for $6 million for legislative district staff.

The House approved the concurrence by a voice vote. The governor can line-item veto portions of the bill, as it is a bill that appropriate money.