You've been tagged on a bill. Now what?

Your division gets tagged in Teams when a bill might affect you. You have two jobs: say what you think, and mark yourself done. This page takes two minutes to read and covers both.

1 · Read the post

Each post is one bill. It shows the bill number, the deadline for comments ("comments due Tue, Aug 4, 5:00 PM" — right in the subject line, so you can see it without opening anything), who else it went to, a plain-language brief, and a link to the full bill text.

The red ! means high importance, not emergency. It's there so the post doesn't get lost in a busy channel.

2 · Reply in the thread

Reply to the post itself — not a new message, not a private email to the coordinator. Everything stays with the bill that way, and the coordinator can collect it.

Useful replies answer three things:

Question	Example
Does this affect us?	"Yes — this changes how we issue permits."
How much would it cost?	"Roughly $40,000 in FY27 for signage and system changes."
How big a deal is it?	"Minimal impact" · "moderate" · "significant cost increase"

Plain sentences are fine — write the way you normally would. If you have a spreadsheet or memo with the numbers, attach it to your reply; Word and Excel attachments are read too.

Why the wording matters. The coordinator collects costs and severity straight out of your replies, so writing "about $40,000 in FY27" saves everyone a round trip. If you don't know yet, say TBD — that's tracked as "estimate pending," never as zero dollars. Nothing you write is posted anywhere else, and the coordinator reviews everything before it's recorded.

Nothing to add? Say so — "no fiscal impact" or "no comment" is a complete answer and closes the loop.

3 · Mark yourself done

Open the BillTracker tab in your legislative Teams channel. Find your division's row for that bill and change Status:

Status	Means
Pending review	Nobody has looked yet (this is how rows start).
In review	You've claimed it and are working on it.
Commented	You've said your piece. Done.
No comment needed	Doesn't affect your division. Also done.

While your row sits on Pending review past the due date, it shows up as overdue on the coordinator's list. Flipping it to Commented is what makes that stop.

While you're in that row, you can also fill in Estimated cost, Impact severity, and Fiscal year directly. Costs can be written however you like — $1.2M, 250,000, TBD, or (50,000) for a saving.

Quick answers

Question	Answer
Do I need to install anything?	No. Reviewers use Teams and the tracker tab — the add-in is the coordinator's tool.
I got tagged but it's not our area.	Say so in a reply and set your row to No comment needed. That's genuinely useful — it tells the coordinator the routing needs fixing.
I'm going to miss the deadline.	Reply in the thread saying when you'll have it. A late answer beats a silent row.
Can I just email the coordinator?	You can, but it won't be collected automatically and someone will have to retype it. Thread replies are much better.
Someone else already replied for us.	Then you're done — just make sure the row shows Commented.

Coordinator instead? See the coordinator tutorials.