Alaska Legislature: Senate Dept. of Administration FSC, 4/16/26, 5:50pm

Good afternoon. I will call to order the Senate Finance Subcommittee on the Department of Administration's Budget. It is 5:50 PM on Thursday, April 16th. With me this evening are Senators Kaufman and Tobin. Senator Bjorkman is excused today.

I wanna thank our LIO moderator, Susan Quigley, for having the sound on. Our only order of business this evening is to forward a recommendation to the full Finance Committee for the fiscal year '27 operating budget. I'd like to call to the table Ella Adkisson, who works in my office and has staffed the subcommittee to run through the proposed report. Ms. Atkinson. Thank you very much, Mr.

Chair. For the record, Ella Atkinson, staff to Senator Kiel. The Senate Finance Budget Subcommittee for the Department of Administration submits the following recommendations to the Senate Finance Committee. A budget with total funds of $349,375,900. Of that, unrestricted general funds represent $99,571,500.

Designated general funds are $36,689,000.

$1,000,500. Other funds are $211,793,400. Federal funds represent $1,321,500. For position count, we are recommending a total of 1,218 positions. 1,188 Of those are permanent full-time.

4 Are permanent part-time. 26 Are temporary. The Senate Finance Subcommittee accepted some of the items requested in the governor's amended budget, including all recommended increases for the implementation of the information technology classification study. $200,000 In program receipts for the Division of Motor Vehicles to absorb increased costs of producing license plates, tabs, and registrations, and the deletion of a data communications specialist position that had been vacant for over 2 years. After careful consideration of the proposed budget, the report recommends the deletion of 2 vacant positions, a deputy commissioner and a chief operations officer, along with the associated interagency receipts, adding an Attorney V to provide leadership and legal support to the Public Guardian section.

This was a governor's request in FY26 that was not funded. For organizational changes, the Senate Finance Subcommittee report denies both decentralization of payroll services and shared services. There was significant concern that accepting either decentralization proposed in this budget cycle carries a high risk, especially in payroll services, where the increased risk of error rates and missed pay to the state employees is at stake. The report recommends the department return with a plan for decentralization of both payroll and shared services by December 1st of this year. Lastly, the subcommittee report recommends to the full Finance Committee that they unwind the proposed decentralizations throughout the operating budget.

That's all I have, Mr. Chair, and I'm happy to take questions. Thank you very much. Are there questions from subcommittee members?

Seeing and hearing none, uh, do I have a motion? Yes, Mr. Chairman, I move the attached budget action and wordage reports from the Senate Budget Subcommittee for the Department of Administration I further move the subcommittee authorize Legislative Finance and Legislative Legal to make any technical or conforming changes. Thank you very much. Before we finalize that, I previously offered the department the opportunity to say anything. Last chance, no backsies after this.

Okay, is there objection to the motion? Seeing and hearing none, the motion carries. That is our only item of business for this evening. I would like personally to thank Rob Carpenter from the Legislative Finance Division, who helped prepare this report and corrected a number of mistakes that I made, as well as Ms. Atkinson of my office, whose work was tremendous, and the folks at the department for their cooperation, information, and work on preparing this report. There being nothing further to come before the subcommittee, we are adjourned at 5:54 PM.