HELENA — State Department of Natural Resources and Conservation officials said Wednesday their planned moved to a new three-story facility in Helena next summer will come with some belt tightening after lawmakers denied additional money for rent in the state’s main budget bill.
DNRC Director John Tubbs said they’ll be short about $425,000 for rent in the building in fiscal year 2017, but he doesn’t think it will mean cutting jobs.
“I’ve gotten word out that we’ll be tight in 2017, and we’re going to have to have each program figure out some ways (to save),” Tubbs said, noting that cutting out-of-state travel and equipment purchases are ideas to look at before eliminating jobs. “We’ll have to manage.”
Real estate developer and Senate Majority Leader Matt Rosendale of Glendive made the motion to keep the rent for Helena DNRC offices at 2015 levels, saying the building project purposely circumvents a state law.
That law requires legislators to approve state leases that run for more than 20 years and involve more than 40,000 square feet of space. The DNRC lease is for 20 years on a building space estimated at 39,085 square feet. In addition, the project includes about 36,000 square feet for a parking garage.
“As far as I’m concerned they violated the statute,” Rosendale said Wednesday. “Democrats and Republicans have come to me and said they’re disgusted by this action.”
He also said the deal will force the Legislature in 2017 to revise the law and perhaps eliminate the 40,000-square-foot threshold.
Tubbs and legislative attorney Julie Johnson say because of the size and lease term, the project doesn’t need legislative approval. In a legal opinion written at Senate President Debby Barrett’s request, Johnson also cited DNRC reports that standard procurement and commercial lease processes were followed.
“The DNRC is authorized to enter into a lease for the new building,” she wrote.
The DNRC’s new facility has been years in the making, Tubbs said, and the department has been shoehorned into its current space near the Capitol since the mid-1990s. The new building will give it about an additional 10,000 square feet for its 115 employees with room for about 10 more.
The building will go on a now-vacant lot near the Capitol where Mills Hall, a nearly 100-year-old college dormitory, stood until last year when it was razed as part of the project. The DNRC’s Trust Land Management Division acquired the land, which it will lease to the lone bidder for the building project, Dick Anderson Construction of Helena. The construction company will own and lease the building, but the trust will keep the land and proceeds from leasing it will go to the University of Montana and Montana State University, as is done with other commercial lease projects throughout the state that go to fund schools, Tubbs said.
The facility will also be cheaper to rent in the long run, Tubbs said, and because of fixed rent rates, he estimates the DNRC will save about $2.1 million over the 20 years. The contractor will also have to pay local property taxes, which should bring in about $1.8 million, he said.