Committee told $2 million allotment for BGS; officials detail $50 million capital fund largely encumbered

The State and Local Government Committee was told a $2,000,000 allotment to the Bureau of General Services (BGS) is an administrative move, not a new appropriation, as members reviewed the supplemental budget on March 3.

Elaine Clark, commissioner of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, told the committee the $2,000,000 “is allotment only. It's not an appropriation. It's not a request for any funding.” She said the Bureau of General Services' capital construction reserve account holds $50,000,000 and that most of those funds are already committed.

“The account itself had $50,000,000 in it. Of that amount, it is 88% encumbered,” Clark said, adding that $740,000 of the remainder is earmarked as BGS’s share of a FEMA project to rebuild the Causeway to Macworth Island, which houses the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf. Clark described the allotment as necessary because BGS was inadvertently left out of the FY26–27 biennial appropriation where it normally receives $2,000,000 per year for capital repairs.

Sen. Joseph Martin asked for arithmetic clarity after Clark described the 88% encumbrance figure. “What is 88% of $50,000,000?” he asked, noting the committee’s need to reconcile encumbered, assigned and unassigned balances. Clark walked members through the accounting: “So, of the $50,000,000, $48,200,000 has been assigned to projects. Assign refers to projects that have been encumbered but are also either in design or in procurement,” she said, and described a pipeline of projects that have progressed to design or procurement stages but are not yet in signed contracts.

Committee members pressed on whether the unassigned balance and in‑pipeline amounts should be treated as available for new work. Clark said roughly $1,800,000 remained unassigned after encumbrances and that much of the rest is already in procurement or design and will become encumbered when contracts are executed.

The committee did not take a vote on the allotment during the work session; members agreed to reconvene and record votes the next day so the analyst can prepare a report-back to AFA before the Wednesday deadline.

Proper names referenced in the discussion included the Bureau of General Services, the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf and FEMA. The committee asked staff to provide a clearer breakdown of encumbrances, assigned projects and truly available balances before finalizing its recommendation.