Because of difficulties the legislative and executive branches experienced putting together a capital budget in 1955, an interim building commission was created to study the state's building needs. The group returned to the Legislature in 1957 and recommended it create a permanent body to carry on the work, and the Legislative Buildings Commission (LBC) was born.
From its creation until it was abolished in 1973, the LBC was the main player in the state's capital budgeting process.
The commission made a list of all proposed state building projects and spent the interim between the biennial sessions traveling the state and making site visits to all of them.
The LBC submitted its recommendations to the Legislature and through the Department of Administration, to the Governor. The Governor would approve or modify the recommendations and they became his capital bonding bill. With very few exceptions, governors incorporated the LBC recommendations intact into their bill.
The LBC was abolished in 1973 and its responsibilities were transferred to the chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations Committees. A variety of reasons have been given for its demise such as a decreasing need to build state buildings because of lower population growth and declining enrollments, and the displeasure of some with specific projects which received LBC approval.
[Paragraphs above are excerpted from a memo dated November 18, 1988 from Jill M. Schultz, Senate Counsel and Research. For entire memo, see Reports section below or Agency notebooks.]