Conference committee reconciles House–Senate changes to state property inventory bill

A three-on-three conference committee of House and Senate members met March 10 to reconcile differences in a bill referred to in the session as “age 50,” which would require an inventory of state properties for possible conversion to housing. Representative Wayne Harrison (Wyndham District) opened the meeting and said the panel convened to review Senate changes returned to the House and to craft agreed language for a final bill.

Representative James Gregoire (Franklin 6) explained the House’s key edits, including removing the phrase “state leased” from the Senate text because the House was uncertain what “state leased” meant in practice and worried leased space could limit the state’s ability to convert properties to housing. Gregoire said the House also changed reporting from “biannually” to “annually” to match current administrative practice with the agencies that would produce the inventory. “We weren’t really sure what you meant by state leased,” Gregoire said, and the frequency change was made after conversations with the administration and with agencies such as BGS and the…