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Lawmakers press to fund prison repairs and boilers as capital bill shifts cash
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Summary
Committee members urged the Senate Institutions committee to preserve funding to avoid delays to a correctional facility boiler replacement and to address urgent bathroom repairs, while staff described offsets elsewhere in the draft that keep the bill even with the House overall.
Members of the Senate Institutions committee pressed BGS and counsel on the capital bill’s treatment of several corrections projects, warning that cutting certain items could delay needed work and worsen conditions.
A committee member said the boiler project has a shortfall and that missing funds could delay the project by months or up to a year, depending on bid results and lead times for equipment. "We have gone out to bid...If they come in and we don't have our estimate, we've already reduced it in this estimate, then we have to scope back again," a BGS representative told members, explaining the potential schedule impact.
Members emphasized urgency around bathroom renovations at a correctional facility. Lawmakers cited a low estimate of $600,000 and an upper estimate of $800,000 to renovate the bathrooms, stressing that failing to act could leave inmates in substandard conditions. One member warned the situation was "very close to a human rights situation" and urged prompt action.
Grama walked members through offsets in draft 2.1. She noted the Senate draft reduces DOC Wi‑Fi funding from the House’s $3,000,000 to $250,000; that $2.75 million difference is used as a primary cash offset in the draft’s math. The draft also changes the source or amounts for several correctional appropriations, including shifting a $500,000 sprinkler project from bond to cash and increasing door‑control upgrades from $700,000 in the House to $2,700,000 in the Senate draft.
Members discussed language options to make funds fungible across projects for the women’s population — for example, allowing money to be used for the new women’s facility or for maintenance and renovations at existing facilities — while noting that any reallocation must be mechanically feasible under capital accounting rules and statutory timelines.
The committee did not take action and asked staff to prepare updated language and options for appropriation and reallocation at the next meeting.
The next procedural step is a continued committee review; no vote was held.
