Committee hears that $15 million is available to women’s reentry/correctional facility; members press for clearer project accounting

During the capital bill walkthrough, committee members pressed for clarity about funding available to the statewide women’s reentry and correctional facility. The Chair asked which allocations and reallocations had been or would be assigned to that continuing project; members said they had been told there is $15,000,000 available to advance the project.

A committee member (Committee member) said, “There’s 15,000,000 in there is what we’ve been telling,” noting the project’s scale and asking whether money being reclaimed via reallocations should be directed into the account for that project rather than parked in the general pool. Counsel and fiscal staff explained reallocations flow into a large pool and that the House used some of its reallocations to direct money to the women’s facility, but that exact tracing from one specific source to a specific project is not automatic once funds enter the fungible reallocation pool.

Committee members asked for a reconciled accounting: project‑level sums, the current fund balance for the women’s facility, and a clear list of which prior appropriations will be used to reach the $15 million total. Counsel acknowledged those details are available through agency/BGS project tracking and said staff would provide follow‑up information.

Next steps: the committee asked for testimony and a written project‑level fund reconciliation to confirm totals and to assess whether reallocations or reversions should be explicitly targeted to the women’s reentry project before the committee acts on the bill.