Senate Institutions committee debates H.952 capital allocations, delays lease authority

The Senate Institutions Committee met April 23 to review H.952, a capital bill that includes funding for corrections facility repairs, park lease language and several grant and maintenance items. Committee members and staff spent most of the session reconciling draft language and spreadsheet line items; no final vote was taken before the committee recessed to update numbers.

John Gray of the Legislative Council walked members through Draft 3.1 and its spreadsheet, identifying visible additions and deletions. Gray said the bill adds $430,000 in bonding for the Newport Northern State Correctional Facility boiler replacement "in addition to the 1,000,000 in cash," which he summarized as "so that's 1,430,000 total." He also said the draft adds $220,000 for Recovery House Inc. residential-treatment renovations and removes a previously proposed $350,000 for EV charging stations, freeing money to reallocate.

The bill keeps several cash appropriations unchanged, Gray said, including a $1,000,000 statewide parcel stormwater-compliance line, $2,700,000 for door-control upgrades and $500,000 for sprinkler upgrades. He flagged new policy language affecting the Agency of Natural Resources' role at Little River State Park: "Instead of saying that the commissioner is authorized to enter into a lease, it's authorized to negotiate a lease," Gray said, adding the intent was to allow the legislature an opportunity to view a lease in conference committee before it is executed.

The committee chair raised concerns that the original house language would allow broad authority to enter leases without specific parameters. The chair said departments have received federal grant money to renovate the historic house at the park but that the bill currently lacks guidelines about required lease terms and protections for the state's interest.

Emily Kasicky, deputy commissioner of BGS, told the committee that bathroom upgrades at the existing facility were the most pressing maintenance need and offered a "rough cost estimate of $600,000" for that work. Kasicky said BGS does not have an existing funding source that would easily cover the work and asked for flexibility to use prior appropriations to address preexisting facilities.

A committee member pressed the group to prioritize the Newport boiler and said they would vote "no" unless the committee could reach about $1.7 million for the boiler project. The member described a willingness to "hold my nose" on other non-capital items if the boiler funding were increased to that level, framing the demand as a condition for support.

Staff reported that removing one line from the spreadsheet freed $350,000 in bonded dollars and that, together with other changes, a total of $650,000 had been identified for reallocation. With a $220,000 addition for Recovery House, the remaining $430,000 was applied to the Newport boiler funding to reach the $1,430,000 figure Gray described. Staff also noted that some previously identified funds (about $1.5 million referenced from a prior discussion) had been at least partly encumbered, reducing what could be pulled back immediately.

The committee discussed available balances from prior acts and resolves. Kasicky cited Acts and Resolves No. 50 of 2021, section 3(b)(1), reporting a remaining balance of $868,850 in that appropriation and noted there were additional appropriations from 2023. Members debated how to apply those balances and other fund-balance components to meet the competing priorities for boiler work and women's-facility renovations.

Rather than resolve the outstanding arithmetic and language edits in the meeting, the committee agreed to take a short recess to update the spreadsheet and the draft language. The chair proposed a 20–30 minute break with a plan to reconvene at 3:40 p.m., at which point members expected to return with clarified numbers and any proposed changes for conference consideration.

Next steps: The committee recessed to refine the bill's spreadsheet and language; no formal motion or vote on H.952 was recorded in the transcript provided.