Committee probes corrections capital requests as costs rise; members consider trimming HVAC request

Members of the Corrections & Institutions Committee spent much of a session reviewing corrections-related capital line items, questioning why some projects show sizable remaining cash while others now show higher cost estimates and no contractor responses.

Committee discussion opened with the archive roof replacement line, where members noted prior appropriations and the cash remaining for that project. Committee members reported approximately $921,000 remaining on a $2 million line for one roof item and said about $79,000 had been spent on design work previously. Members pressed staff for whether design funds or other prior appropriations would cover FY26 work and sought clarity on what the remaining balances had funded.

The committee shifted to a larger discussion of HVAC upgrades and replacements at correctional facilities. Members recounted that the committee had appropriated roughly $5.15 million for HVAC work in a previous year with the goal of completing Springfield and possibly beginning work at an additional facility; staff said no construction bids had been returned and that the money remained unspent. Committee members noted that the department currently has cash on hand for some projects (committee discussion referenced roughly $4.7 million available for a set of projects) but that the fiscal request for FY26 included another $5 million plus a $1 million placeholder in FY27.

Because construction-management and equipment lead times were described as long — members referenced a roughly six-month to 18-month equipment lag — and because recent designs and updated estimates have come in higher than anticipated, committee members discussed trimming the FY26 request. Several members proposed reducing the FY26 bonded/cash ask from $5 million to $4 million as a placeholder and to reassess once updated cost and bid information arrives in April. Members also discussed using existing cash freed up from earlier projects or repurposing prior appropriations to cover near-term design work rather than bonding for all costs immediately.

Committee members raised process and transparency concerns: they repeatedly said the administration’s budget materials do not show historic appropriations and remaining balances in a single, consolidated chart, which makes it difficult to track prior cash and bonded commitments across bienniums. Several members asked staff to direct the administration to present a single chart showing prior appropriations, amounts spent, and remaining balances for projects going forward.

Members also flagged larger fiscal tradeoffs: they noted the state’s two-year bonded budget box (discussed in committee as about $106.89 million) constrains how much can be added in bonds, and said growing cash balances have already reduced assessed bonding capacity. Several members warned of supply-chain and labor constraints that could push construction costs higher even after bonding is set.

No final construction approvals or new appropriations were adopted at the meeting; committee members agreed to revisit the HVAC lines after updated cost and bid information is submitted, and one member said the committee would “pencil in” $4,000,000 for FY26 as a working placeholder pending that information.