Alia Beard Rau

The Republic | azcentral.com

The Senate is spending an estimated %24363%2C111 on projects%2C mostly for new carpet and asbestos abatement.

The House is spending an estimated %24336%2C759%2C mostly on office remodel work.

House leaders say the work was needed for safety reasons.

The Arizona Legislature faces a $1 billion budget shortfall. State leaders have begun warning that likely painful cuts will be required and say they can't afford to pay public schools the money the court says they're owed.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate found nearly $800,000 in the couch cushions for new carpet, paint, reconfigured offices for leadership and other remodeling to legislative facilities.

According to information provided to The Arizona Republic in response to a public records request, the Senate is spending $363,111 on remodeling and the House is spending $336,759. Some of the amounts are based on the bids, and so may change once work is completed.

And that's not all of what's being spent. The records do not include the amount the Senate is spending to reupholster dozens of chairs in legislative hearing rooms, or what the House is spending on new monitors and TVs.

Most of the Senate's reported expenses are related to replacing its 20-plus-year-old carpet, and asbestos abatement on tiles found beneath the old carpet.

Most of the House expenses were to remodel office space and replace decades-old carpet in the members' lounge and on the House floor.

House Majority Leader Steve Montenegro, R-Litchfield Park, said the work was safety-related.

"We had a couple of engineers do a walk-through and they shared some very serious concerns with some of the walls and some of the structures," he said. "If we didn't do certain fixes to that building, potentially it could be a harmful environment for people to work in."

Montenegro said they decided if they were going to have to rebuild walls anyway, they might as well reconfigure the office space to function better for lawmakers and staff. Office space was moved around to better accommodate lawmakers in leadership positions, and a larger conference room was created.

"When you have so many chairmanships, you need to give those chairmen their own office with their own assistant," he said.

Speaker-elect David Gowan,• R-Sierra Vista, has created 19 committees for next session, compared with 18 House committees last session.

Montenegro said the money came from the House operating budget, and not directly from the general fund. The House budget is funded by the general fund.

The House spent $194,767 to remodel second floor and basement offices and paint the speaker's and Republican offices. It spent $39,120 to remodel Democrats' offices, something Democrat leaders say they didn't ask for.

"They told me a week or two before they were going to start construction so I could move my stuff," said outgoing House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix. "It's nicer, but I don't think it was necessary."

Campbell said some asbestos abatement did need to be done. Records show that cost about $34,000.

"But the rest of it is cosmetic," he said. "There are new monitors, new TVs. It's costing some serious money to do this, and is this the appropriate time, when we're facing a deficit once again?"

Incoming House Minority Leader Eric Meyer, D-Paradise Valley, said he also wasn't consulted about the Democrats' office work.

"We made no request to have our offices redone, and we had zero input," he said. "They came up, they measured and they did it."

Meyer said the state could have covered the salaries of a dozen teachers for the cost of the remodeling work.

"All I hear from my colleagues is there's no money," he said. "I was shocked to hear how much was spent on something that on my list of priorities of what I would do with taxpayer dollars isn't even a blip on the radar screen. We could have put that money back in the general fund. We could have used it for child welfare."

Among the more controversial moves was relocating a copy machine and supplies from the second floor, near the clerk's staff, to the basement to make more room for Republican leadership.

Clerks often need to make a large number of copies quickly as lawmakers introduce proposed bill amendments during floor sessions.

"The clerks and all of our assistants on the third floor now have to go to the basement to get copies," Meyer said. "We'll see if that slows everything down."

The House and Senate are each spending about $1,500 to install higher railings on their third-floor galleries. The galleries are open to the public during floor hearings. At the end of last session, a pregnant lobbyist tripped on the stairs in the gallery and nearly fell over the railing. Lawmakers immediately called for that work to be done.

Senate remodeling costs

•$1,002 to move a wall in the Republican staff office.

•$182,170 for carpet installation.

•$177,735 for abatement of asbestos tiles under the carpet.

•$1,435 for additional handrails on the third-floor gallery.

•$769 to relocate broadcast basement door.

House remodeling costs

•$13,897 for painting throughout the building.

•$39,120 for Democratic leadership office remodel.

•$676 for asbestos testing.

•$23,369 for tunnel abatement.

•$9,950 forabatement basement and second floor.

•$50,056 for new carpet in the member lounge and House floor.

•$1,500 for additional handrails on the third-floor gallery.

•$193,056 to remodel second floor and basement offices.

•$1,711 to paint speaker's and Republican majority's offices.

•$3,424 for woodwork repair to member lounge and House floor.