House Finance Subcommittee reviews FY27 legislative budget; session operations and lease costs rise

The Alaska House Finance Subcommittee reviewed the legislature's FY27 operating budget request at a Feb. 23 meeting, hearing presentations from the legislative auditor, the legislative fiscal analyst and the Legislative Affairs Agency and scheduling follow-up work and an amendment deadline for the legislature portion.

Jessica Geary, Executive Director of the Legislative Affairs Agency, told the panel the legislative council passed its portion of the request on Feb. 11 and walked members through binder tabs detailing allocations, revenues and transaction-change reports. "There is $912,200 to fully fund session operations," Geary said, and the request also includes "$855,000 for a contract with Gavel Alaska for gavel-to-gavel session coverage" and "$750,000 to restore special session contingency." She added the request seeks $35,000 in general-fund program receipt authority for higher anticipated lounge revenue.

Chris Curtis, the state legislative auditor, summarized the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee materials and the transaction-change detail, noting one discrete transfer: "the only transactions is a transfer out and that was for $200,000 to help fund the relocation of the legislature's mailroom," she said. Curtis described the audit allocation as essentially a status-quo request driven by standard salary and benefit increases.

Lehi Painter, legislative fiscal analyst, reviewed the legislative finance allocation and its three suballocations (the fiscal office, house finance and senate finance). Painter said most changes reflect statewide salary adjustments and a line-item transfer to align fiscal office line items with expected expenditures. "We don't have any proposed changes this year," Painter said when asked whether the division required additional funding beyond standard adjustments.

Members raised questions about staff pay, office allowances and the source of increased lounge authority. Representative Johnson asked whether the House and Senate handle staff salaries differently and whether office-account amounts differ between chambers; Geary responded that "Senators received $20,000, house members received $12,000," and that presiding officers determine staffing allocations in the interim. On lounge revenue, Representative Vance asked why the additional $35,000 authority appears as general-fund program receipt (DGF) authority; Geary said the lounge budgets roughly $85,000 and has averaged about $100,000 in receipts and that rising food, supply and wage costs prompted the request so the lounge can cover its expenses without requiring an offsetting decrease in DGF authority.

No formal motions or votes were taken during the meeting. Co-chair Foster said the committee would coordinate an amendment deadline and schedule a follow-up meeting to close out the legislature portion of the budget process; the panel adjourned at 4:37 p.m.

The next procedural step is the subcommittee's follow-up meeting, at which members said they expect to set amendment deadlines and finalize any remaining decisions on the legislature's FY27 request.