House committee delays action on H.50 amendment after debate over ‘space book’ inventory of state-owned and leased property

The House Corrections and Institutions Committee on May 28 voted to recommit H.50 to the committee for further work after a lengthy debate over amended language that would expand the annual "space book" inventory to include “state owned or state leased buildings and land” and to indicate whether land is “unnecessary for statutory purposes.”

Lawmakers said the change was intended to produce a single, searchable report of state property that could reveal sites for reuse or sale; officials from Buildings and General Services (BGS) warned the amendment as written could impose new data-collection duties outside BGS’s current statutory jurisdiction. The committee’s motion to send the bill back to the committee passed on a voice/hand vote recorded as 11–7 in favor of the motion to recommit.

BGS Commissioner Wanda Manoli told the committee the phrase “state leased” in the senate amendment is best understood in the framework of the existing space book, which BGS compiles annually. "The space book is compiled annually and contains…