Institutions committee questions BGS plan to use cash fund for $8 million in major maintenance; asks for pipeline detail

Institutions Committee members on Wednesday, Feb. 26, pressed Buildings and General Services officials about using the state cash fund for major maintenance projects and asked BGS staff to return with a line-by-line pipeline of encumbrances and near-term needs.

The committee was reviewing the Corrections & Institutions section of the governor’s capital bill when members raised concern that the proposal would allocate $8,000,000 from the cash fund for major maintenance in fiscal 2026 and $8,500,000 in fiscal 2027, a share committee members described as nearly half of available cash in some line-item groupings.

Why it matters: committee members said the use of cash reduces flexibility for other projects and can create pressure to spend funds quickly; BGS staff said the agency is prioritizing cash for projects that will spend faster and that some previously appropriated cash remains unexpended or encumbered.

Juan de Manoli, commissioner of Buildings and General Services, said the agency picks cash “to support the demands within the capital bill, and we identified cash to projects that we would spend faster on.” He told the committee that some projects (for example, White River Junction) are already under contract and that best practice has been to spend cash first when cash is available.

Committee members repeatedly asked for more detail about what cash is already encumbered and what remains in the pipeline. One member framed the problem as a choice the committee can make during markup: either keep FY2026 cash in place and reduce FY2027, or zero out FY2026 and rely on the committee to revisit the request in next year’s adjustment process. The chair indicated a preference to keep FY2026 available and revisit FY2027 as necessary, noting the committee will be back in January for budget adjustment.

Joe, director of design and construction, Buildings and General Services, told the…