Senate Finance subcommittee recommends $1.17 billion university budget

The Senate Finance subcommittee on the University of Alaska recommended Thursday a $1.17 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2027, including one-time funding for student recruitment and employee pay raises.

The subcommittee voted unanimously to advance the budget recommendation to the full Senate Finance Committee. The proposal totals $1,169,962,000 and includes $364.1 million in unrestricted general funds, $322.8 million in designated general funds, $253.2 million in other funds, and $229.8 million in federal funds. The budget supports 4,108 positions: 3,838 permanent full-time and 270 permanent part-time.

The subcommittee accepted all items in the governor's amended budget, including $2 million in university receipts to develop a land sale in Cordova and $48 million in receipt authority adjustments to align with fiscal year 2025 actuals.

The recommendation adds one-time funding beyond the governor's request for student recruitment, totaling $1,213,000 in unrestricted general funds and $1,037,000 in university receipts spread across the three main universities. The funding would be distributed with $750,000 total to each university, maintaining the same proportion between unrestricted general funds and university receipts that the Board of Regents originally requested for each campus.

"This report does not recommend funding the full Regents request for any of the three universities," Senator Jesse Kiehl said. "In narrowing it down to $750,000 total at each, we applied the same proportion between unrestricted general funds and university receipts at each university."

The subcommittee also recommended $1.8 million in unrestricted general funds for healthcare cost increases and $2,423,900 in unrestricted general funds, $970,100 in university receipts, and $68,800 in statutory designated funds for non-union employee compensation increases.

An additional $4,467,600 in unrestricted general funds and $1,914,800 in university receipts was added to the language section of the operating budget to fund the same compensation increase for recently unionized university employees, contingent on agreement between labor and management.

Senator Cronk asked about the varying proportions of general funds versus university receipts in the recruitment funding across campuses. Kiehl explained that the proportions reflected each university's original request to the Board of Regents.

The subcommittee's motion also authorized Legislative Finance and Legislative Legal to make any technical or conforming changes as necessary.

Kiehl, who chaired the meeting, thanked Legislative Finance budget analyst Michael Partlow and university staff for their work on the budget. The meeting adjourned at 9:07 a.m. The full Senate Finance Committee will consider the subcommittee's recommendation in coming meetings.