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Committee approves bill letting Department of Corrections use trust fund to purchase facilities
Summary
The Senate committee advanced House Bill 1158 to allow the Department of Corrections and Division of Community Corrections to use the prison construction trust fund to purchase facilities (rather than only construct or equip them); the bill passed the committee by voice vote after department testimony on process and fund balances.
Senator James Sturge presented House Bill 1158, which changes statutory language from "division of corrections" to "department of corrections" and authorizes the department and the division of community corrections to use the prison construction trust fund to purchase existing facilities. "That would then allow the part the division of corrections as well as division of community corrections to take advantage of this current statute and code," Sturge told the committee.
Christine Cryer, chief legal counsel for the Department of Corrections, explained the approval process: once the department identifies a potential purchase, the secretary would present the recommendation to the Board of Corrections for approval; if approved, ADVA and relevant agencies would provide opinions/resolutions and a contract would be drafted to draw funds from the prison construction trust fund. Jeff Gerry, controller for the Department of Corrections, said contracts and board resolutions would be part of that process and that some contracting oversight would occur through PEER.
Gerry told the committee the trust fund balance was roughly $19,000,000 at the time of testimony, with just over $5,000,000 committed on current contracts and about $13,000,000 available for new projects. He said roughly $2,000,000 per year is pledged to debt-service on an outstanding bond, and committee members emphasized the need to ensure cash flows and debt obligations are satisfied before any purchases.
Sponsor Sturge said the change merely reflects current practice and would give the department more flexibility to acquire buildings — for example, reentry houses — when acquiring an existing building would be more economical than new construction. After sponsor closing and committee discussion confirming executive-branch review, the committee took a voice vote and the chair declared the bill passed.
The committee recorded the motion and second (transcript text: motion from 'Centra Caldwell as DuPasse' and second from 'Center Ingram') and approved the bill by voice vote.
