Lawmakers move forward with $10 billion budget
Published Saturday, March 22, 2008
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Stumble It!JUNEAU — The state Senate is getting ready to consider a $10 billion state operating plan that’s arrived on the floor about a month earlier than last year.
The proposal, introduced on Friday, uses about $4.2 billion in general funds, $4 billion in other state funds and $1.7 billion in federal funds.
It spends about 11.5 percent more than last year from the state general fund but less on agency programs than Gov. Sarah Palin has proposed.
Senate Finance Committee co-chairman Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, said lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to bring the rate of growth to less than 10 percent.
“At this rate of change, in seven years the operating account is going to double to $8.4 billion. That is unaffordable and unsustainable,” Stedman said. “We need to work collectively to bring that rate of change down even further.”
Lawmakers began the legislative session debunking the governor’s much touted 4 percent increase in state spending, which they estimated was closer to 15 percent.
Now they are touting a $208 million decrease from the governor’s December spending plan but only a small portion of that reduction is to state government.
The largest piece is the result of the finance committee’s removal of a proposal by the governor to deposit $155 million into a state savings account called the Constitutional Budget Reserve Fund. They are instead making a much larger deposit - $3.6 billion — to the same account under a different appropriation bill.
Lawmakers did shave off $15 million from the $75 million Palin proposed putting into revenue sharing next year.
They also eliminated 148 new job positions she requested, “which I believe is substantial and where we need to control the growth of government,” said finance co-chairman Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel.
Palin’s budget director Karen Rehfeld said the administration will ask to have some of those positions restored when the Senate takes up amendments on Monday.
She said they would like to have $2 million put back in for trooper positions and $6 million for attorneys and support staff working on oil and gas litigation in the Department of Law.
Rehfeld agreed on the need and the difficulty of reining in growth.
“I think we are all on the same page. And the governor is clearly looking to the long-term,” Rehfeld said. “But until Alaskans decide what public services they don’t want us to deliver any longer as a state, any significant reduction in the operating budget is going to be difficult.”
The Senate also added some items to the governor’s budget including the injection of an additional $4.1 million into the Public Education Fund for use in the coming years. The Senate is expected to pass the budget on Monday.
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$10,000,000,000.00/310,000 working Alaskan's = $32,258.00 per person.
This is insane! The State budget is more per person than the average income. This is not going to be sustainable into the future. Sarah Palin needs to reign in the out of control spending down in Juneau.
Ten Billion dollars for State Operating Budget...and politicans are arguing over $500. per individual Alaskan's "wind fall" rebate????
PRS/TRS and Severance Pay...might be past time to trim the fat from politican and bureaucrat's plate and give them a taste of REAL WORLD.
It seems to me that our law makers are out of touch with reality starting it the co chairman of the Finance committee; Lyman Hoffman. Controling growth is one thing killing our economy is another. I can see now why he cut 20 million out of the school budget and why he is forcing the the shooting ranges to close and why he is attempting to kill Fairbank's hatchery. I bet his pet projects are embedded somewhere in some bill he is hiding. Anything needed they have axed, anything the govenor has requested they have stone walled. Do you see a trend appearing here.
They say they are playing political nicities, I say BS and give us what we need, the projects that will help our state grow in a controlled 8 to 10% rate. That is not asking much, do your job and quit blowing smoke up us cause it is not making us happy.
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