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Bleak Midwinter
We just finished our second week of capital student visits. It’s a privilege (and a lot of fun) to talk with Juneau 8th graders visiting the Capitol. We’ve had lively conversations Alaska government and the importance of checks and balances.
The students leave understanding that the legislative branch passes the laws and appropriates the money. Then the executive branch implements the laws and spends the money as directed.
At least we hope that’s how it all works. I wrote last week about our work writing next year’s budget. This week we spent some time with the executive branch checking in on the current year so far. One way we give the executive guidance is through “intent language.” It's not legally binding, but it lets departments know what the legislature expects.
We also get a peek at how things are going when we review “supplemental” budget requests. That’s extra money the governor asks for to finish out the current year.
The big picture isn't pretty. Our current year budget already has a deficit. The supplemental funding requests deepen the hole.
A few of the highlights are interesting. One's even good news: last year, we asked the public defender, prosecutors, and the Court System to all take steps to reduce the backlog of criminal cases. They did, and there's some real progress.
We also asked the Department of Corrections to tell judges when someone who hasn't stood trial yet has been on electronic monitoring for longer than the longest possible sentence they could get if they were found guilty. The state shouldn’t pay for electronic tracking for longer than the maximum sentence--even ignoring the fairness issue. Corrections and the Courts worked together on this, and it’s already saving the state money.
We also heard back from the Department of Fish & Game. They’ve restored the subsistence division we funded last year. They’re still looking for a division director, though. If you know anyone who’d be good, please ask them to apply!
The governor asked for more money in the current year for some good causes. The supplemental budget has money for seafood marketing. This will fill a hole he created when he vetoed it last year. With bans on Russian seafood coming into effect, we should be filling the hole in grocery cases and on restaurant menus already.
We also need more money than expected for ferry repairs. I’m sure that surprises exactly no one who reads this newsletter often.
The Department of Health has worked hard to build a model so we can get a better handle on how much Medicaid costs from year to year. The good news is they're making progress. The bad news is they need more to finish the current year.
There are also areas where we still need to do more work. The Department of Natural Resources hasn’t requested any money yet for the spring firefighting season. The Department of Corrections didn’t follow work with the legislature's nonpartisan analysts to work on controlling the very large supplementals we've seen from them every year, either.
We also heard about some areas where the executive branch just flat didn’t listen. We paid for a salary study to look at state employee pay. A contractor did it, but somewhat inexplicably we’re not allowed to look at the results until it’s updated. The update—applying a simple percentage adjustment to a few salaries—is expected to take so long we might see it at the end of March. That’s awfully late to do anything based on the findings.
Then there’s the Permanent Fund Corporation. The legislature found a proposed new Anchorage office didn’t bring benefits anywhere close to its costs and declined to fund it. The board decided to do it anyway. I’ll be taking a much closer look at what the Corporation does with their money this year.
Taken together, the governor’s mid-year requests for more money come close to $200 million. There may be more to come. Some of these extra costs are unavoidable. Others are ripe for change. They all need a close look. But they don’t all make headlines. So stay tuned as we work on them this session!
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