Alaska State Legislature

News From The House Majority

Ken Freeman, Press Secretary
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801
phone: (907) 465-3804
web site: http://www.akrepublicans.org
Actuality line: 1-800-478-6540

Spending Priorities Intact Under Budget Passed By House

For Immediate Release: April 4, 1997 Contact: Rep. Mark Hanley (907) 465-4939

JUNEAU - The Alaska State House of Representatives passed out the state's operating budget. The operating budget bill passed upon a final reconsideration vote and was transmitted to the Senate Friday.

"Our Five-Year plan is on track to close the fiscal gap with the budget passed today," said House Speaker Gail Phillips. "We have put forth $43 million in spending reductions on this the first phase of the budget - we are right on target for meeting our goal to reduce government spending by $60 million for next fiscal year."

House Finance Co-Chair Mark Hanley said the House budget continues the Majority's strategy to cut more and tax less to close Alaska's fiscal gap.

"We have prioritized spending and protected those items most important to Alaskans," said Hanley. "The budget passed by the House fully funds education, adds more troopers and Village Public Safety Officers and funds Alaska's roads and maintenance needs."

House Finance Co-Chair Gene Therriault said the House Minority proposed substantially increasing the budget which sends state government spending in the wrong direction.

"The House Minority proposed $28 million worth of spending increases in 45 amendments," said Rep. Therriault. "It is important to note that the amendments offered by the Minority did not call for substantive increases to our priorities of education, public safety and Alaska's roads because those items are sufficiently funded in our budget," said Therriault.

"We have tackled the difficult task of reducing the operating budget. There has been a lot of finger pointing and blame laying by those who don't have the responsibility of making the tough decisions. We have to remind everyone that these reductions represent less than one percent of general fund spending and will not cripple government," said Phillips.

"We are spending $2.4 billion of the public's money this year. The Legislature is charged with being deliberate, considerate and careful, not unduly impacting the basic needs of government. Our job is to ensure that the belt tightening is reasonable - and that is what we have done in our budget," said Hanley.

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Broadcast Note: Audio actualities are available by calling 1-800-478-6540.
^{= Mark Hanley = Gene Therriault}

Highlights from Budget passed by House of Representatives

As of 4/4/97 -- SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Department of Education:

• Fully funded education foundation formula
• The Department of Education budget was approached from the overall premise that there were three primary functions or areas of protection that would be observed. These were:

1. Students first, then teachers then administrators
2. Enable as much as possible the vocationally handicapped to achieve independent living
3. Assure as much as possible the ongoing availability of vocational technical education to assist the transition from welfare to work.

• Reductions in the budget occurred primarily in areas that would not affect the classroom directly, that would not detrimentally intervene in vocational rehabilitation, and that would not limit access to vocational or technical training courses.

Department of Public Safety:

• Increased funding for Fish and Wildlife Protection to ensure our natural resources are preserved. These are renewable resources that need to be managed responsibly.
• Additional funding for 2 part-time fish and wildlife protection officers to patrol Bristol Bay during the fishing season.
• Increased funding for troopers over $400,000 above last year's level.
• Seven new Village Public Safety Officers will be funded.
• Budget included increases to combat domestic violence and address the problem at the intervention level by ensuring that Batterer's Programs are funded.

Department of Transportation and Public Facilities

• House prioritized highway maintenance and held the maintenance and operations areas from reductions.
• Encourages the Department to look carefully at the upper layers of management as part of its effectiveness review and in the distribution of the unallocated cuts.
• No cuts were made to maintenance and operations to protect the road infrastructure.

Department of Corrections:

• This budget is a fair approach to our correctional needs. It exceeds the actual expenditures of the FY96 budget by over $1 million dollars. Provides funds for more beds and encourages the department to make better use of low cost alternatives to hard beds.
• There is a $11 million increase over FY95 actual spending.
• An additional 150 beds can be added to the system. This was accomplished by changing funding priorities to reflect a need to address our capacity problem.
• The House plan allows access to over $5 million in new federal crime bill funds to provide additional beds over the next two fiscal years.
• The budget requires state employees to travel less
• A top priority of the House budget is $50,000 appropriated to the Rural Affairs Coordinator to review the cultural relevance of the inmate programs we provide. Programs that don't fit a person's culture are rarely successful. When over 35% of prison population is classified as native, we need programs sensitive to that fact.

Department of Natural Resources:

• Protected agricultural loan funding to ensure farming in Alaska. Many farmers would not be able continue their operations without access to these funds.
• Additional funding for information resource management for RS-2477 mapping.
• Funded the seed potato project - strong potential of development for exports of Alaska potatoes.

Department of Community and Regional Affairs

• Funded senior citizens and disabled veterans renters equivalency rebate at same level proposed by Governor
• Re-implemented the circuit rider program for rural energy. This service trains local governments about how to operate rural energy equipment in a more efficient manner.

University of Alaska:

• Total funding is over $8 million dollars more than last fiscal year.
• Preserved the Alaska Cooperative Extension Center as a separate identity within the University
• Encouraged trade and business services to reduce reliance on general funds.
• Legislature intends student doctors in the WAMI program to either return to Alaska, or repay the entire cost of their education in order to save state funds.
• House restored $530,000 of Alaska Science & Tech. Foundation funding which had been deleted by governor

Department of Environmental Conservation

• Fully funded state control of air and water programs, rather than allowing federal takeover.
• Funded seafood and sanitation inspections to ensure public safety and promote economic development.
• Fully funded hazardous spill prevention and response.
• Fully funded facility construction and operations for water and waster water facilities in rural Alaska.

Department of Fish and Game

• Fish and Game spending will actually increase $1.5 million above authorized spending for FY97.
• Created A-Y-K Region BRU in comfish to Encourage the department to move more of its regional and biological staff to the affected regions to promote better understanding of the area and people they are serving.
• Subcommittee supported creating a Rural Subsistence BRU, with the intent that the division have full-time personnel in Barrow, Kotzebue, Nome, Bethel, and Angoon offices.
• Funds additional enforcement officers in Bristol Bay

Department of Health and Social Services

At over $900 million, House H&SS Finance Budget is allowed to increase $15 million. The House subcommittee was also able include some increases in funding to a few programs:

• Several additional youth probation officers will be hired in FY98.
• An additional Indian Child Welfare Act compliance officer will be hired.
• The Women, Infants and Children baby-formula program will be allowed to distribute an additional $750,000 worth of formula in FY98.
• More children will be served in the Infant Learning Program due to a $100,000 increase.
• $314,000 additional state dollars will be used in the Healthy Families program to replace lost federal grant dollars.
• An inhalant abuse program will also begin in FY98 due to the subcommittees action.
• Federal social services block grant, which supports child protection programs, has been reduced by Congress, and the House subcommittee was able to appropriate state money to replace the federal money.

Courts

• Overall increase over last year's budget
• Give courts flexibility to allocate resources in manner to address the most urgent case-load needs. This funding will prevent a bottleneck from developing as stricter criminal laws are implemented.

Department of Law

• Legal funding for defense of our statehood compact was included as a priority.
• Fully funded Civil Division.

Department of Military and Veteran Affairs

• $100,000 has been added to this budget to fund the national guard youth corps if federal matching monies are appropriated.
• Legislature actively working to restore actuarial soundness of guard retirement.

Department of Commerce and Economic Development

• Fully funded Alaska Science and Technology Foundation
• Created Division of Trade and Tourism - within that, an Office of Trade and Office of Tourism.
• Restored funding for the film office.