SPECIAL DAY EARLY BECAUSE THEY'RE
TAKING THE COMPUTERS EDITION

Gone But Not Forgotten -- Yet

The first session of the 26th Alaska Legislature is over, and the state has survived. That may be more a tribute to the resilience of the state than our efforts in Juneau. Only time will tell.

A lot happened between the last e-news on Friday and the session’s end Sunday night. That’s the way a session works: Everything happens at the last minute. Maybe not the best way to run a railroad, but nobody’s found one that works better.

In the end, the legislature passed 61 bills, 18 joint resolutions, 11 concurrent resolutions and 14 simple resolutions. Eighty-two percent of the bills passed in the last five days.

Among the bills that passed:

            -- Interim benefits for surviving members of the Alaska Territorial Guard;
            -- A compromise on waste discharge by cruise ships;
            -- Declaring Feb. 2 Marmot Day;
            -- Student loan financing;
            -- Money for rural energy.

And the resolutions? Most of them were us giving Congress advice it won’t pay any attention to.

Money, Money, Money, Mon-ey

What we did do was spend money. The operating budget approved for next year by the legislature is about $8.6 billion. When you correct for various differences, it appears that the budget is only about $40 million – less than 1 percent – higher than the operating budget we approved last year.

But before anyone gets too giddy about spending restraint, let’s remember that oil production will likely drop another 6 percent in that year – as it has been doing in years past – and that oil revenue is, basically, all we’ve got to fund the budget. So while there was less than normal budget growth, we are still a little deeper into the woods.

(Just a footnote about the operating budgets. If you count the money we put into one-time items last year – appropriations to savings accounts and the money we handed out to every man, woman and child in the so-called resource rebate – we actually appropriated a ton more money last year – $12.6 billion – than this year.)

The capital budget was actually down by about $1 billion from last year.

Don’t forget, though, that this newfound fiscal conservatism was made possible in part by nearly $1 billion in federal stimulus funds the legislature accepted for everything from capital projects to education.

And also don’t forget that these numbers are subject to change for a variety of reasons. One big one is that the governor has yet to say a word about what, if anything, she plans to veto.

Hand Over That Savings Account, I’ve Got 21 Votes

The big tussle at the end of the session was over taking money from the state’s main savings account, the Constitutional Budget Reserve. That usually takes 30 votes. But part of the CBR law says the House can take money with only 21 votes if this year’s revenue is less than what was spent last year. The nosedive in oil revenue – from $140-a-barrel to around $42-a-barrel – set up just that situation.

Okay, fine. Nobody was trying to keep the majority from getting the money to balance the budget. But they took much, much more money than that. Depending on what happens, they might not need any money to balance the budget. Or they might need $400 million. But they took as much as $2 billion. (Nobody knows the exact numbers because the 2010 fiscal year doesn’t end until June 30, 2010, and the future is notoriously unpredictable.)

So the House majority took money out of the state’s savings account and set themselves up a big, fat slush fund. They claim that if the money isn’t needed to balance next year’s budget, they’ll put it right back.

Sure they will.

Odds & Ends

            -- Juneau got a senator on the last day of the session. After more than a month of shifting positions, Gov. Sarah Palin reached a deal with Senate Democrats and appointed Dennis Egan, son of former governor Bill Egan.

            -- One of the last bills passed was an increase in the state’s minimum wage. Alaska used to have one of the highest minimum wages in the country, because – you know – it’s Alaska and things cost more. That’s eroded to the point that it’s considered a victory if our minimum wage is 50-cents-an-hour higher than the federal minimum wage. Not by me. I voted against this paltry increase and will continue working for a minimum wage that makes sense in Alaska’s high-cost environment.

            -- There’s lots more, but I’m out of gas and I reckon you may be out of interest.  I’ll be back at work in my Anchorage office once the computers and etc. get back from Juneau, so drop me a line if you need more information. There may even be an unscheduled e-news or two before we resume in Juneau in January but, if not, hope you’ve found these useful.

Best wishes,