This morning the Senate released a revised biennial budget and by the afternoon the Senate Ways & Means Committee advanced the budget to the floor.

The proposal makes a handful of changes based on the recent revenue forecast as well as an extension of the higher federal match for the Children’s Health Insurance Program combined with smaller updates and corrections. These changes are made to the proposal initially released by the Senate in April which spends $37.9 billion.

The proposal released today increases spending on policy initiatives by $242 million in the 2015-17 biennium.  The largest increases included: (1) $113 million in higher education, (2) $77 million in employee compensation, (3) $27 million in long term care and developmental disabilities and (4) $16 million in natural resources.

As it relates to higher education the new proposal provides an additional $99 million to implement the College Affordability Program in the first year of the biennium. In addition funding is provided to mitigate impacts on private schools from the financial aid changes proposed in the budget and makes changes based on updated information about current use of tuition waivers by institutions of higher education.