Wednesday was the deadline for Gov. Mike Dunleavy to deliver his amendments to the state budgets. This year didn’t bring the massive, red-alert shake-up we saw in the governor’s first year, instead bringing $117 million of new spending that goes to areas like pubic defenders, Medicaid match and some other targeted grants.
Given the start of the session’s focus on education funding, it’s notable that Dunleavy’s budget amendments don’t include any additional funding for public schools. Those issues could be addressed through other legislation or legislator-driven budget amendments.
The most notable area of increased spending comes for the public defenders office, which faced such dire under-staffing problems that the Nome office warned it will have to decline some cases because it can’t meet the ethical and constitutional requirements for criminal defense with their current staff. The proposed $8.3 million increase comes on top of $6.2 million that had already been proposed, making for a roughly 22% increase to the agency’s funding.
“I’m not going to say that this is a silver bullet,” said James Stinson, director of the Office of Public Advocacy, at the news conference announcing the funding, according to a report by the Alaska Beacon. “There’s always going to be challenges with staffing and other things. But this is a pathway forward.”
The additional spending brings the state’s anticipated budget deficit to more than $400 million for the upcoming fiscal year. Gov. Dunleavy has yet to propose just how he plans to fill that deficit—or the subsequent deficits expected over the next decade—beyond the largely nebulous plan for carbon sequestration, a plan that would take years for the Legislature to study and more to implement.
Meanwhile, several legislators have pointed out throughout this session that the $2.5 billion currently penciled in for this year’s dividend is the largest in state history. Sen. Bert Stedman, the Sitka Republican who co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee, has floated the idea of reducing the dividend to about $1,300 would free up enough money for a sizeable increase to the school funding, erase some $900 million in municipal debt and balance the budget.
“We’re going to have to make a choice. Do we want to teach our kids to cash checks?” Stedman asked at a news conference earlier in February. “Or do we want to teach them to read and write and do arithmetic?”
The highlights, as highlighted by the Dunleavy administration are as follows:
- $8.3 million for the Public Defender Agency and the Office of Public Advocacy, which would bring the same 20% pay raise that other state attorneys already received in last year’s budget.
- $9 million for the Division of Public Assistance to continue work on its backlog as well as $54 million—$17 million of which is state funds—to modernize the state’s eligibility determination system.
- Cobbles together three different funds to meet the roughly $105 million match to secure nearly $300 million in federal funds for the Alaska Marine Highway System
- $7.5 million for a Department of Public Safety patrol vessel replacement
- $10 million ($5 million each) to Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) and Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA)
- $7.5 million for Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) Renewable Energy Grants
- $8 million for wildfire suppression
- $24.4 million for Medicaid rates and match
- $5 million for State assumption of Section 404 Permitting Primacy
- $2.8 million for 10 more VPSOs and housing allowances
- $250,000* to assign a dedicated Alaska State Trooper to investigate in-custody inmate deaths and reported felony and misdemeanant criminal cases within the correctional facilities.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
