House committee reviews capital-construction adjustments, adds reallocations and bond authority

Members of the House Corrections and Institutions Committee heard a line-by-line briefing Thursday on technical changes and funding reallocations to last year’s capital construction act, including new project authorizations, reallocated balances from prior capital bills and added bond capacity the legislature may use for the next biennium.

Damian Leonard of the Office of Legislative Council briefed the panel on the bill passed last session (Act 162), describing the second-year adjustments that shift previously authorized spending among projects and, in some cases, add new projects. “In the second year, you adjust it,” Leonard said, explaining that projects often run behind or under budget and that the adjustment bill both moves money to where it is needed and adds projects that were not on the first-year radar.

The committee was shown spreadsheet reconciliations prepared with Scott Moore of the Joint Fiscal Office. Leonard said some line items were struck and reallocated; as an example he noted a previous $50,000…