Juneau -- The Alaska House of Representatives Friday gave final passage to the Finance Committee Substitute for House Bill 100, the Supplemental Budget. The measure was approved along strictly Majority-Minority lines.

"This bill is a remarkable piece of legislation that funds the unanticipated items that have to be funded, yet still manages to bring total State spending for the fiscal year in $1.5 million below what we'd budgeted for last year," said House Speaker Brian Porter (R-Anchorage). "Finance Committee members and staff, and the members of the Administration who worked together on this bill to find and make the reductions that could be made, deserve our collective thanks."

The Supplemental Budget provides $8 million dollars to Western Alaska for Relief of last year's salmon disaster. Another $1.6 million requested by the Governor and loudly defended by the Minority was for capital projects only marginally related to the disaster and will be considered soon in next year's budget proposals. The Supplemental Budget also fully funds the State's Chronic and Acute Medical Assistance (CAMA) program, and provides $800 thousand for child support enforcement.

However, Minority members in the House dug-in their heels and refused to raise the spending cap for the Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR), despite the certainty that the State will run out of money within two weeks. To withdraw the necessary funds from the CBR requires a 3/4 vote of each house of the Legislature.

"Every year we write a budget, trying to maximize every dollar which Alaskans have entrusted us with, and every year the Minority refuses to vote for that budget unless and until we add more money for their priorities," said Representative Eldon Mulder (R-Anchorage). "No matter how well-intentioned some of their requests are, I do think a sense of responsibility should tell our friends in the Democratic Minority that our present fiscal crisis is far too real for these sorts of politics-as-usual tactics."

The Supplemental Budget now moves to the Senate, which is set to consider it this weekend.