Senate Institutions delays consideration of Watson amendment to H 50 after questions over inventory language

The Senate Institutions Committee on May 20 deferred further action on an amendment to House Bill 50 that would require state agencies to note in regular inventories whether buildings are vacant and whether land is unnecessary for “state purposes,” including the statutory policy and purposes of each agency.

Senator Watson introduced the proposed change to H 50 during a special morning meeting and said the amendment would add language clarifying that state agencies’ inventories should consider “the statutory policy and purposes of any state agency.” Watson said the language was intended to anchor what counts as state purposes. "I'm proposing that latter clause," she said during the committee discussion.

Committee counsel Ray of the Office of the Council told members the inventory requirement is an information-gathering exercise and does not itself authorize sale or disposition of property. "This is just saying…