House Corrections and Institutions committee approves draft 5.1 of capital bill, sends it to Appropriations

The House Corrections and Institutions Committee voted to pass draft 5.1 of the state capital bill and will present the bill to the House Appropriations Committee at 9 a.m. the following day.

Committee Chair opened the meeting and said the panel was working from what members expected would be a final version of the capital bill. John Gray, Office of Legislative Council, summarized technical edits to draft 5.1, saying, "Just a few changes here in draft 5.1," including punctuation changes and several text clarifications such as replacing generic references to "underwater preserves" with "Vermont underwater historic preserves."

The committee also reviewed reallocations and the bill's "notwithstanding" language that preserves older, unspent appropriations for certain projects. Members discussed an itemized list of previous capital projects whose unexpended balances are being reallocated or — in a small number of cases identified in the bill's J subsection — allowed to remain with their original entities despite being more than five years old. The chair summarized the committee's role on reallocations and said members who…