News from the Senate Majority
Alaska State Legislature

Wendy Lindskoog, Senate Majority Press Secretary
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
Phone: 907/465-4582
http://www.akrepublicans.org
Broadcast Actualities: 800/478-6540

Legislature Passes Fast Track Supplemental Budget

Time-Sensitive Items Funded

For Immediate Release: March 25, 1998 Contact: Senator Drue Pearce, 465-4993.

Juneau – The Alaska Senate Wednesday passed House Bill 461, known as the Fast Track Supplemental Budget, to fund items facing pending deadlines. HB 461 passed by a vote of 19 to 1.

According to Senator Drue Pearce (R-Anchorage), Co-Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, last year the Legislature set aside $16.5 million in their spending plan for the FY 98 supplemental budget general fund spending. In February, the Governor submitted his supplemental request for $138.4 million of which $65 million were general fund expenditures.

The Legislature was surprised by the size of the Governor’s request said Pearce. The Legislature pulled several time-sensitive items from the Governor’s bill and incorporated them into HB 461, the "fast-track" supplemental containing approximately $4 million in state general fund appropriations.

"Part of the reason the Legislature developed the fast track supplemental was to address the Superior Court's Order to relieve the State’s prison overcrowding situation before May 1, 1998. We added $1.5 million in general funds and $26,000 in federal funds to the current year's corrections budget in order to provide 463 new inmate beds. This will bring us slightly below emergency capacity levels in our facilities," Pearce said.

"The Legislature also added $608,000 in general funds to complete the 2 percent state match for funding to the Alaska National Guard Challenge Youth Corps program," said Pearce. "On March 18, 117 at-risk teens started the second Youth Corps program of FY 98.".

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= Drue Pearce, 132 K