The Appropriations - Education and Environment Division reviewed several carryover and fund‑transfer items for the Industrial Commission and related entities and asked for additional clarity before finalizing any remaining appropriations.

Carryover requests and funding authority
Karen Tyler, executive director for the Industrial Commission, explained several requested carryovers: ongoing development costs for a GRAMA (records) management system, a records‑digitization project, and third‑round funding for an iPipe infrastructure project. Agency staff asked to carry remaining balances into the next biennium because work remains in progress and invoices will be paid after the fiscal year end.

Spotlight on Salt Cavern funding
Committee members probed a roughly $6 million transfer that had been earmarked for a salt‑cavern initiative. Tyler and Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) representative Tyler Hammond said the larger effort originally proposed for earlier sessions had been scaled back and that $11.3 million total had been appropriated last session for salt‑cavern work and related study. Hammond said the earlier legislative directive had intended construction work but that, given the scale of construction costs, the available dollars would more realistically support initial techno‑economic analyses, business‑case development and early concept work. He said some commercial partners had expressed interest in further study if statutory language provided flexibility to support pre‑construction analysis.

Legal and accounting notes
Committee staff noted several related funds (oil and gas research fund; state energy research center fund) have continuing appropriation authority. That means funds transferred to those accounts remain available until spent; the committee need not add carryover language for some of those items. Staff advised that rescinding or redirecting transfers (for example, moving the $6 million back from a special fund) would require explicit session‑law language.

Committee direction
Committee members asked staff and agency witnesses to:
- confirm which items genuinely require carryover authority and which will be spent from funds with continuing appropriation,
- provide more detail on the salt‑cavern work and any private‑sector interest, and
- identify alternative uses for the $6 million if the salt‑cavern work is not proceeding to construction.

Next steps
Staff and the EERC will provide the requested clarifications and any statutory language suggestions so the committee can decide whether to leave the transfers intact, change the statutory language that ties funding to construction, or repurpose the funds.