A looming shutdown of the state government has been averted with the Legislature’s passage late on June 22 of a fiscal year 2018 operating budget.
The compromise version of House Bill 57 now goes to Gov. Bill Walker for consideration.
The compromise package includes $4.1 billion in unrestricted general fund spending, and sets the 2017 Permanent Fund Dividend at $1,100, the Alaska House Majority Coalition said in announcing the compromise.
Under the 2018 operating budget the K-12 Base Student Allocation will be fully funded at $1.2 billion, the same level as for the current year, reversing a $69 million cut to education that was earlier advanced by the Senate.
The compromise budget reversed $14 million of the $22 million in additional cuts to the University of Alaska advanced by the Senate, as well as the $6 million cut to Pioneer Homes put forward by the Senate Majority.
In total, the compromise budget cut $128.7 million from fiscal year 2018 agency and statewide operations compared to the fiscal year 2017 budget. The fiscal year 2018 cut is $23 million more than the cut in the budget that originally passed the state House in March.
“The compromise budget we passed tonight prevents a government shutdown and funds the essential state services that help drive our economy,” said Speaker of the House Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham. “Fisheries will continue uninterrupted, our airports will stay open and Troopers will stay on the beat.
Still, Edgmon said, the job is just half done. “We now call on the Senate Majority to join us in enacting a comprehensive fiscal plan.”
In its statement issued on the budget compromise, the House Majority Coalition said its members stand ready to continue work still unfinished, including the fiscal year 2018 capital budget, legislation to create a sustainable draw on Permanent Fund earnings, reforms to Alaska’s oil tax regime, and new broad-based revenues.
Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, said that there is overwhelming evidence “that the best way to protect our economy is to diversify our revenue and take away some of the volatility that comes from relying on the fluctuating price of oil or the inherent ups and downs in the stock market.”
The budget that was passed will prevent a government shutdown and keep the state up and running, but is an incomplete solution that continues “the unsustainable budgeting of the past four years,” he said.
“Hopefully, with the operating budget out of the way, the Senate Majority will be good to their word and give serious consideration to the comprehensive fiscal plan we successfully passed through the House.”
The budget compromise was put in place by the Conference Committee appointed to work out differences between competing versions of the budget bills passed in the House and Senate.
