Session: State Capitol, Room 104 Juneau, AK 99801-1182 Phone: (907) 465-2199 Fax: (907) 465-4587 Interim: 10928 Eagle River Rd., Suite 140 Eagle River, AK 99577 Phone: (907) 694-6683 Fax: (907) 694-1015

Priorities Bill Respects Executive Experience
HB 349 is Commonsense Approach to Making Budget Decisions

(JUNEAU) - In medicine, as in politics, it is sometimes necessary to surgically excise a portion of unhealthy tissue to ensure the long-term health and survival of the patient. But just as no surgeon would pick up a scalpel until his patient told him exactly where it hurts, it is foolish to expect the Legislature to trim the state budget when state departments refuse to divulge where cuts would do the least harm.

Yet that is the position the Alaska Legislature has found itself in. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the state's looming budget shortfalls, estimated at $900 million next year alone, the Knowles/Ulmer Administration has steadfastly declined to cooperate with the Legislature in establishing budget priorities.

That's why I introduced House Bill 349, passed by the House last week, which would require state departments to present their annual budget requests in a format listing their functions in order of priority. This bill reflects the respect and consideration the Legislature owes to the professional public servants who make state government work, by enlisting their expertise in the service of stretching limited state dollars to cover the seemingly endless demand for them. I believe my colleagues in the Senate will give this bill through consideration and swift passage.

The practice of enlisting the executive branch in helping set budget priorities has an honorable history in Alaska. For 20 years Anchorage's municipal departments have presented their budget requests in a form that ranks the importance of each function in priority. This provides the Assembly a clear understanding of each department's view of the value of each component of their outputs and activities, and I found it an invaluable tool in my six years on the Assembly. Annalee McConnell oversaw this process as Anchorage Mayor Tony Knowles' budget director, and could easily reprise that role as Gov. Knowles' budget director. I would appreciate her efforts just as much now as I did then.

The News has editorialized, not incorrectly, that the Legislature is ultimately responsible for using the budget process to set state priorities. But the News and others are wrong to assume the public is best served when the Legislature does so in a vacuum. Are state employees' opinions about the relative worth of their work valueless? Should the Legislature be deprived the benefit of their experience? I don't think so.

House Bill 349 would not be necessary if the governor had not long ago established a pattern of resisting Legislative efforts to make necessary reductions in state spending while causing the least amount of pain. As long as three years ago, the Legislature obtained a copy of a memo from Knowles to his commissioners discouraging them from offering legislators any information whatsoever about how their departments could be more efficient, even if cuts did not diminish the level of service to Alaskans.

Just last week, two commissioners stated in writing that everything their department did was of equal importance - that it was impossible for them to establish priorities. This implies that keeping a state museum open on Saturdays is no less important than employing a child protection officer to keep infants safe from sexual abuse. I reject this judgment, as should any thinking Alaskan.

The administration has thousands of year-round, fulltime workers, while the Legislature is a group of 60 part-time citizen-lawmakers, many with limited experience working with government bureaucracies. It is easy for the administration to refuse to cooperate with the Legislature in making budget decisions, wash their hands of responsibility, and then lob rhetorical bombs at the "unfair" results.

The Daily News has been a staunch champion of communication, disclosure, bipartisan cooperation and tough decision-making as Alaskans address the state's budgetary challenges. Why then, should the paper or anyone else object to a bill that encourages communication between the governor and the Legislature, requires disclosure of administrative priorities, promotes bipartisan cooperation between the administration and the Legislature, and facilitates tough budget decisions?

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