State surplus auctions yielded roughly $112K from computer lots in FY23–24, ANI says

Patricia Bach, director of the Department of Administration and Information (ANI), and surplus administrator Andrew Coleman briefed the Joint Appropriations Committee on state surplus operations and auction revenues.

ANI staff said retired computers are stripped of hard drives (destroyed for security) and sold as lots (cases, motherboards, keyboards, sometimes monitors). For FY23–24, ANI reported $111,980 in auction proceeds specifically from computer surpluses; ANI noted the full surplus program returned $3.4 million in BFY23–24 once all categories (furniture, vehicles, equipment) are included.

Surplus uses PublicSurplus (publicsurplus.com) for online bidding and also allows walk‑in shopping. ANI said most surplus revenues are remitted to the general fund and that three surplus staff manage the program; proceeds are incremental relative to overall state revenues but are material to repurposing government equipment and offsetting replacement purchases for agencies.

Lawmakers asked whether surplus administration costs exceed receipts for computers; ANI staff said computers are a small portion of surplus work and personnel costs are modest relative to the program as a whole. ANI agreed to provide more granular cost/benefit detail if the committee requests it.