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Committee approves bill letting state parks manage construction projects up to $1 million; contractors express procurement concerns
Summary
The House Transportation Committee on May 6 voted to report House Bill 297 favorably, allowing the state parks agency to manage public-construction projects up to $1 million to speed repairs and preserve revenue from park assets.
The House Transportation Committee unanimously reported House Bill 297 favorably May 6 after extended debate. The bill would allow the Office of State Parks within the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism to manage construction projects with aggregate estimated costs up to $1,000,000 rather than turning those projects to the Division of Facility Planning and Control (FP&C).
Representative Thompson and Brandon Burris, director of Louisiana State Parks, said the change would let parks expedite repairs to revenue-generating assets such as cabins and campsites and reduce delays that have increased costs and lost revenue. Burris said replacing and repairing RV concrete campsites can cost $12,000–$15,000 a site; under the current $250,000 threshold the department must transfer projects to FP&C, creating delays. Burris cited a prior example in which a $350,000 repair took 16 months and grew to $800,000 because of contracting delays.
Darryl Cahoon of the Associated General Contractors opposed the bill and urged caution, arguing the state’s public-bid and procurement rules exist to protect taxpayers and to ensure transparency. Cahoon said the bill does not specify procurement procedures and asked that statutory public-bid requirements be referenced. He urged oversight and transparency, citing past examples of projects that went awry when an agency undertook construction beyond its usual scope.
Committee members pressed for guardrails. Representative Jackson moved to report the bill favorably, and Representative Shammerhorn asked for and secured the author’s commitment to work on written guardrails, a possible pilot program, and oversight involving the legislative auditor and a reporting requirement describing use of the authority. Representative Jackson and others argued the change could save taxpayer dollars and speed revenue recovery for parks. The committee approved reporting the bill favorably with no recorded objections.
