A revised Senate budget with a $1,300 Permanent Fund dividend and $680 one-time increase in per-student education funding — which now appears to be the highest possible amount, compared to previous proposals of $1,000 or more — was adopted Wednesday by the Senate Finance Committee.<\/p>\n
The budget of about $6.2 billion contains a $90 million surplus, which means it would not need a three-fourths vote of the Legislature to access reserve funds and could absorb a slight drop in oil prices.<\/p>\n
In contrast, the Republican-led House majority is proposing PFDs of about $2,700 and a one-time per-student education increase of about $680, resulting in a deficit of about $600 million. Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget includes a PFD of about $3,500 and no education funding increase, resulting in a deficit of more than $900 billion.<\/p>\n
“This is a responsible budget that considers the services Alaskans expect while living within our revenue projections,” said Sen. Bert Stedman, a Sitka Republican who co-chairs the Finance Committee, in a prepared statement issued Wednesday afternoon. “The constitution mandates us to deliver to the governor a balanced budget. Within the confines of the spring revenue forecast and not dipping into our perilously low reserves, we balance the budget with the potential opportunity of revisiting it next January to deal with further maintenance and capital needs.”<\/p>\n
The finance committee also boosted its initial capital improvements budget of about $191 million — the bare minimum needed to qualify for federal funds approved for related projects in Alaska — by about $166 million, putting the total $357 million plan above Dunleavy’s $304 million capital budget. In a news release by the committee, it stated priorities included $30 million for major school maintenance and $32 million for University of Alaska projects.<\/p>\n
“We have limited resources to work with, making this capital budget one of the smallest we have seen in a long time,” said Sen. Lyman Hoffman, a Bethel Democrat and another co-chair of the committee, adding “we’ve chosen not to do any individual district projects, but are concentrating on shoring up statewide existing infrastructure.”<\/p>\n
Revisions to the Senate’s budget<\/a> also contain changes to smaller items that got public attention during a hearing last week<\/a>:<\/p>\n Removal of about $5 million to allow the state to take over wetlands development permitting<\/a> from the federal government.<\/p>\n