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House committee substitute trims encumbrance authority in DNR items, keeps several infrastructure NDIs
Summary
Committee chair described edits to House Bill 6 affecting Department of Natural Resources appropriations, including changing large dollar lines to encumbrance authority and several new decision items for parks and local infrastructure.
Chair Dayton resumed discussion of House Bill 6, which includes Department of Natural Resources items and several infrastructure new decision items (NDIs). He said a key change on page 17 was converting several large dollar lines into encumbrance authority to reflect multiyear projects.
"This is one of those programs that they're multiyear projects and we've been carrying a lot of dollars," Dayton said, describing an effort to find a middle ground between long-standing wide appropriation authority and more limited annual authority.
Dayton directed members to page 17 and said items 11 through 19 showed the big dollar amounts converted to encumbrance authority. He also noted NDIs for local projects: City of Wildwood at $250,000 and a reduction on item 24 that the chair described as a $20,000,000 decrease tied to lapse. He referenced the McDonald County State Park item as a returned vetoed project and noted a park ranger salary increase tied to a state park sales tax fund.
Dayton said he planned further conversations with the Department of Natural Resources on whether the committee had struck the right balance for multi-year project authority and that existing encumbrance authority remains in the bill for certain programs.
Ending: The chair left the item open for follow-up discussion with DNR and invited other members to confer with the department about specific projects referenced in subcommittee recommendations.
