Budget

The House of Representatives Finance Committee has finished the final draft of the operational budget with $70 million in cuts. This budget will pass the House and then go over to the Senate, where they will "massage" it with Senate numbers and send it back to the House for concurrence. If all goes as planned the Senate budget will come back to the House with $70 million in cuts. We already know that the numbers inside the House and Senate budget will have some differences, therefore the budgets will go to a conference committee made up of members from the House finance committee and the Senate finance committee. The conference committee will see if they can work out the differences and bring it back to both bodies to concur. The following are a number of different areas of this budget I have started working with some of the Senators to get put back into the budget on the Senate side.

ASMI

Representative Kelly from Fairbanks removed the entire state general funds from Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute's (ASMI) budget. The $844,000 in state money would be matched from federal dollars to the tune of $4 million. This is matched by the foreign private sector. What this means is we will lose about $8.8 million in marketing dollars to market seafood overseas. I have started working with the Senators in hopes of restoring this money.

Arts

Representative Kohring eliminated the entire state funding for the Arts out of the budget. Working with a couple of the other Representatives on the finance committee we were able to get $250,000 placed back into the budget. We are attempting to reinstate the rest of the Arts funds back on the Senate side.

Public Communications

As I reported in my last Juneau Update, all public radio and TV was rolled into one heading called Public Communications. As chairman of the finance subcommittee that held hearings on Public Communications, Representative Kohring started out by stating he was planning on eliminating this entirely.

By the time we closed out this subcommittee we had placed a letter of intent that Ratnet/ARCS was to stay at the dollar level that the governor recommended and that radio and TV would only take a 15% cut. Again we talked to some of the full finance committee members and got another $200,000 put back in for radio and TV. The full finance committee drafted a letter of intent in the budget that ARCS, Public Radio and Public TV will be phased-out over a 3-year period. We're trying to get even more back into this budget, but I do not hold much hope. Thanks to everyone who has contacted me and given their support.

State Employee Contracts

The House's budget disapproves the monetary terms of the state contracts that were negotiated by Governor Knowles. This means that state employees will not be getting a cost of living raise again this year. This will have no effect on their regular merit and step increases they receive each year. It's possible that the Senate will put the money in and the conference committee will see if they can work it out.

I should add here, that while the Republican led majority both in the House and Senate are the driving force behind the budget, the Democratic minority has a very big hand to play in the budget. Because of the fiscal gap of about $500 million, the $70 million in cuts by the majority still leaves about $434 million to close the gap. At this time the only place that this $434 million can come from is the Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR). It takes a three quarter vote of the legislature to spend the money from the CBR.

This means the majority needs the minority to balance this budget. The minority has already stated that they will not give the three quarter vote without the state employee contracts and some of the other monies from above. This is also the time that some of the minority bills, which have been hung up in committee, will start to move and pass. How do you cut a budget to get it in balance if you have to trade away the cuts to get a three quarter vote? You don't.

That has been the problem all along. You either have to get rid of the CBR, so a majority of the legislators can do the budget or you have to start adding taxes to get the budget in balance. In a recent survey that I did in Kodiak, 79% of the respondents said, "Cut the budget." It will be very interesting to see what the people of the state say when we are still here in Juneau after the mandatory date of adjournment passes, because the majority will not add back the dollars that the minority wants! I hope it does not turn into a stalemate as what has gone on in Washington D. C.

Fish Legislation

HB 141 - Last Friday morning, HB 141, which changes the Board of Fish appointment and term dates, was signed into law by Governor Knowles. I introduced this bill February 1, 1995. There was widespread support for this bill as it will help insulate the Board of Fish from legislative agendas.

HB 366, the Alaska Marine Safety Educational Association (AMSEA) bill is scheduled for a hearing in House Finance Committee on Tuesday of this week. I am glad to see this legislation moving again after some delays due to the Finance Committee being busy with the Operational Budget.

HB 397, which rearranges the Fisheries Resource Landing Tax and the .3 ASMI assessment finally moved out of Senate Finance last week. It is now in the Senate Rules Committee which is its last committee of referral before going to the Senate floor for a vote.

HB 542, my bill on adjusting the Conflict of Interest Laws as they apply to the Board of Fish, passed the House on a 35 to 2 vote last Wednesday. Senator Pearce seems to have a problem with it. She gave the bill four committees of referral where on the house side it only had two committees of referral. We're hoping that the good Senator only misunderstands the bill and that we will be able to get some of the committees to just waive the bill on through.

This Wednesday, April 3, at 5:30 p.m. the Fisheries Committee is scheduled to hear only one bill, HB 405, a bill by Representative Nicholia that would allow ASMI to market Salmon on a regional basis or "niche marketing." This meeting will be on teleconference at the local LIO.

Visitors

Visiting from Kodiak last week was Dr. Bruce Johnson of the school district. In addition, Chiniak School teacher and National Teacher of the Year Elaine Griffin, took time out of her hectic schedule to continue our dialogue on education. Also stopping in from the district was Jim Ashford with the Alaska Marine Highway Service, Christine Marasigan and former resident Mike Martin, presently living in Anchorage. Chiniak Eighth grader Katrina Stone was also in town visiting her dad who works in this office. Katrina had the privilege to serve as a page on the House floor this past week.