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Senate Institutions panel weighs bill to centralize state property inventory
Summary
The Senate Committee on Institutions reviewed H.50, a bill directing Buildings and General Services to compile information about underused state buildings and land across agencies, including leased space, and discussed how existing BGS records and other agency data would be integrated.
The Senate Committee on Institutions on April 29 discussed H.50, legislation that would direct the Department of Buildings and General Services (BGS) to collect and publish information about underutilized state-owned buildings and land across state agencies, including data on leased space.
The measure, introduced to identify state property “on hand,” would expand BGS’s current inventory work to include property the department does not manage. Chair, Senate Committee on Institutions, opened the meeting and asked BGS to explain how the office would gather and present that information.
Commissioner Manoli, Commissioner of Buildings and General Services, told the committee BGS already assembles a “space book” that lists properties by town and county, occupancy, owning agency, square footage and a capacity field that is effectively the number of desks and functional workspace. Manoli said the department annually compiles the inventory and is prepared to incorporate information from other agencies so the legislature can see all state property in one place.
Manoli said BGS does not currently have jurisdiction over properties owned by other agencies but can use their data and blend it into the space book. “We don’t have a concern in collecting this information through, and using the data that they have and blending that into our space book,” Manoli said. He added that BGS already records leased space without a statutory directive and that the department would not object to explicitly including leases in the bill’s language.
Committee members asked about searchability and organization. BGS staff explained the space book is available online with tabs to view leased properties, state-owned parcels, listings by town and by agency, and square-footage totals. Staff suggested risk-management records as an additional source because the state’s insurance unit maintains comprehensive lists of insured property.
The committee agreed to update the bill text, conduct a formal walkthrough of the amended language, and provide members an advance copy before the committee takes further action. No motion or final vote on H.50 was taken at the meeting.
The discussion clarified that H.50 would not change BGS’s authority over property managed by other agencies; it would create a consolidated inventory for legislative use and require some coordination across agencies to supply data.
