The capital bill drafting committee on March 21 agreed to consolidate two existing $150,000 line items for Human Services and for Education into a single $300,000 Building Community Grants pool and to add intent language to give the oversight committee flexibility to allocate funds between the two programs.

The consolidation was proposed after committee members and agency staff described consistently higher demand in the human‑services category in recent cycles. “For the record, Landa Minoli, Commissioner of Buildings and General Services, clearly, there's an indication that you get more requests. … The last grant cycle, there was 419,000 in human service and 234,000 roughly in educational grants,” Landa Minoli said during the meeting.

Why it matters: the change would let the committee direct more money to whichever set of projects best fits the board’s scoring criteria and the pipeline of “ready‑to‑go” projects, rather than hold fixed amounts for each category that can leave one side undersubscribed while the other exhausts its allocation.

Committee discussion and drafting direction
Committee members debated whether to simply merge the two line items (restoring a prior structure) or to merge them while adding explicit intent language that the combined $300,000 “should be divided between the two programs as equally as reasonably possible” but that the committee may prioritize funding for projects that score higher or are ready to proceed. Michelle Oswald illustrated how committee flexibility helps: “You could put the 300,000 and give them the ability to move the money between the two,” she said.

Members cited recent award counts as supporting the change: committee members said education had about a dozen awardees last year while human services had roughly 25–30 applications, producing more demand than the allotted line. Several members signaled they had no objection to consolidation provided the bill included language stating the committee’s intent to try to divide funds equitably while permitting transfers if one program is undersubscribed.

What the draft will change
Draft language the committee directed staff to prepare will (a) consolidate the two $150,000 line items into one $300,000 Building Community Grants allocation and (b) include a sentence expressing the committee’s intent that the appropriation be divided between Education and Human Services “as equally as reasonably possible” while allowing the oversight committee to prioritize funds for projects that meet readiness and scoring thresholds.

Next steps
Committee staff said they will update the spreadsheet and the bill text (versioning referenced in the meeting as “Version 5/6”) to reflect the consolidation and to circulate a revised draft for review.

Sources and attribution
Remarks above were recorded in the committee’s line‑by‑line review on March 21; the direct quotes are taken from committee discussion and attributed to Landa Minoli and Michelle Oswald as noted in the transcript.

Ending
The drafting committee moved quickly past the consolidation after members signaled support and asked staff to insert the agreed‑upon intent language and to update the bill spreadsheet for the next circulation.