Senate Institutions shifts $7.1 million to bonds, trims and reprioritizes multiple capital projects

Representative Alice Emmons, chair of the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions, told the Senate Institutions Committee Friday that her committee moved $7,100,000 from cash into bonded funding in its markup of section 9 of the governor’s proposed capital budget.

"The first one is a big change in terms not money wise, but we moved $7,100,000 over to bonded dollars," Representative Alice Emmons said, explaining the decision grew out of testimony and concerns about tracking projects funded with mixed cash and bond sources.

The House markup reallocated funds across multiple corrections and state‑owned building projects and added language intended to make multi‑year project tracking easier. Emmons said past capital budgets used both cash and bonded dollars on the same projects, which made it difficult for committees to follow spending and project scope over multiple biennia.

A committee member said the change has real budgetary effects at the margin: the committee "lost $7,330,624 out of the capital" as a result of the House adjustments, noting the House and Senate will have separate versions and will negotiate differences. That comment was made during discussion and was not presented as a formal vote or final figure for the Senate.

The markup moved a number of line items or reduced future years' amounts after agency testimony about permitting, design progress and prior unspent balances. Examples discussed in the hearing:

- Corrections HVAC and cooling:…