O Come All Ye Budget Nerds
Yesterday the governor released his budget proposal. It’s just that: a proposal. Turning it into a set of final appropriation bills will be the biggest single job of the session to come.
It may be the most promising starting point yet from this governor. On the whole, it doesn't seem to have radically weird proposals, and a few even look pretty good.
It’s about the same size as last year's, but true to form, he proposes a PFD so large we would need to draw from our savings. On the plus side, he seems to have gotten away from the idea of overdrawing the Permanent Fund—a non-starter for responsible fiscal policy.
On education: last year’s reading bill started building toward universal pre-K. Other than that, the governor proposes flat funding in a time of raging inflation. That doesn’t meet our constitutional duty to maintain a public school system. And it doesn't do right by our kids.
The University also faces cuts. Never mind its vital role in our economy. On the other hand, the governor suggests increasing WWAMI, which provides medical school spots for Alaskans to become doctors and come back to practice here.
He also suggests pretty much flat funding for our struggling state agencies. Ask anyone who’s trying to get a professional license, a permit, or temporary assistance like Medicaid—you’ll learn how badly underfunded the agencies trying to run these programs are. We’ll need to work on these budgets, too.
The ferry proposal has enough money to run the ships all winter—and real investments in maintenance. It needs some improvement—not least because it uses too many federal infrastructure dollars for operations instead of replacing worn-out ships. It also doesn't invest in fixing AMHS' desperate understaffing problems (caused largely by the deep cuts of 2019-2020.) But the new ferry board is doing some good work with DOT, and there's progress we can make.
The capital budget, which funds infrastructure projects, is just a bare bones base. That’s not awful. I think it will serve as a jumping-off point to meet Alaskans' needs by adding projects.
