By Jordan Lewis and Jasz Garrett
Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy revealed his proposed Fiscal Year 2025 budget for the state. The total budget amount is $13.9 billion.
The budget includes a full PFD of 2.3 billion, according to the formula in statute.
There are no cuts in the budget, however, Dunleavy said the spending proposal includes a deficit of nearly $1 billion that he proposes using savings to cover. The deficit is based on forecasts of reduced oil prices and production.
While inflation has increased more than 20 percent since Governor Dunleavy came into office in Dec. 2018, the FY2025 operating budget continues the Dunleavy administration’s effort to contain the cost of State government. The Governor’s proposed budgets have limited agency growth to approximately 1% per year since FY2019, well below inflation during that time.
When asked how Alaska can reach a point where it doesn’t need to rely on savings, Dunleavy said they have choices to make still.
“We either reduce the budget, we take money from individual Alaskans or corporations through tax. We continue to take money from the PFD and eventually eliminate that, or as Ted and Don said, we’ve got to fight like heck to be able to exert our resource development mandates that had us become a state and are in our Constitution,” he said. “If we could develop a fraction of our forests and a fraction of our mining place, then a fraction of our new and additional oil and gas, we’re going to pay for this.”
Education
The Governor opened the press conference by noting that there was no increase in the Base Student Allocation (BSA). The BSA is part of the formula for funding education.
“That does not mean there won’t be an increase in the BSA. It’s just that in this budget roll-out, there’s not. There is millions of dollars proposed in education,” Governor Dunleavy said. “And, you know, I want the public to understand that as a former educator, I understand that schools cost money, education costs money, there’s no doubt about it.”
The proposed budget does include millions for education:
- Statutory funding for school districts according to the Foundation Program, Pupil and Transportation, and School Debt Reimbursement formulas in the statute
- $8.3 million for school construction and major maintenance
- $5 million for the Alyeska Reading Academy and Institute
- $1.5 million for Teacher Recruitment, Retention, Certification and Apprenticeship Development
- $1.5 million for continued Career and Technical Education Initiative
Earlier this year, Alaska’s charter schools were found to be the best in the nation. Governor Dunleavy hopes to use charter schools as a model to improve education across the state.
“If you have kids and families that want to attend a particular school or particular program, the chances are, they’re going to do better… Alaska’s charter schools are number one,” Governor Dunleavy said. “We’re going to find out why and see if we can duplicate that for all kids. What we do know is that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is what? Yeah, could be crazy.”
Department of Law
Governor Dunleavy said if the state is not able to develop natural resources, they will have to talk about reducing the size of government and “taking money from more Alaskans.” He noted that if that’s the case, more people are going to leave the state to find a cheaper place to live.
$1.9 million and 10 additional positions will expand consumer protection investigations, address child protection cases, assist with drug prosecutions, and assist with grand jury investigations. $2 million goes to the Alaska Department of Law to support continued statehood defense efforts across multiple agencies.
Attorney general Treg Taylor said that Alaska should have the right to develop its natural resources.
“The reality is we can sit back and allow the federal government, outside groups, and bureaucrats in Washington D.C to dictate how we live in Alaska and how we support our families,” Attorney General Taylor said. “Or we can push back and fight for our sovereignty, to fight for our right of self-determination, our right to do the right and responsible thing for Alaskans.”
Education, housing, public safety, and childcare are the main issues that deter people from coming to Alaska. While childcare is not included in this preliminary budget, a report from the Childcare Task Force will present concepts to the legislature in the future.
Public Safety
Public safety is another big factor that plays into whether people want to live in Alaska, Governor Dunleavy said.
The Governor’s budget includes aircraft and boats to help DPS serve all of Alaska regardless of roadway conditions. The budget allows for the acquisition of a single-engine turbine-powered all-weather aircraft, Pilatus PC-12NG, and the replacement of a patrol vessel for Southeast Alaska.
The Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, James Cockrell, said that’s something they could have used during Wrangell’s initial landslide response.
“We are requesting a new large class vessel for Southeast Alaska, most likely be stationed here in Juneau to respond to emergencies, search and rescue, disasters and enforce hunting and fishing regulations. Again, one of the things this department’s struggled with, and has since I’ve been with the department, is getting to emergencies at a fairly quickly time,” Cockrell said. “Sometimes it takes us two or three days to get to a homicide in some of our villages and we have to do better. Certainly, if we would have had that during the Wrangell slide. We would have had resources there immediately or as long as it took for our vessel to get there. We could have housed, provided food and lodging, and bring more first responders to the area.”
The Department of Public Safety also received proposed funding for 10 additional Village Public Safety Officer positions and VPSO salary increases, three new investigators with the Alaska State Troopers focused on crimes against children, and four investigators with AST dedicated to investigating missing and murdered Indigenous persons.
The three new child crime investigators with the AST will be based in western Alaska, where the highest amount of crimes against children occur according to a 2022 Felony Level Sex Offenses report.
Cockrell said this will act like a pilot program before they begin to expand the service across the state. He said they wanted to start in the Yukon Delta, specifically stationed in Bethel, where Alaska’s troopers are needed the most.
“If you look at the number of crimes against children in that region and the status, the highest in the state. That’s something that I personally wanted to do for several years and now I think we have the ability to do that,” Cockrell said. “To put it in context. Every week we have three more cases referred to our office. In the course of three years, we had over 400 cases that our troopers investigated.”
Cockrell said it’s a priority of DPS to continue investigating cold cases and current cases of missing and murdered Indigenous persons. They have also requested $250,000 for a statewide outreach campaign to educate rural and urban Alaskans on the issue.
Housing
The Governor’s FY2025 budget includes investments in infrastructure and economic development providing both immediate and long-term housing benefits to Alaskans.
Housing points:
- $25 million is proposed for Alaska Housing Finance Corporation Downpayment Assistance Grants
- $62.6 million is proposed for AHFC annual housing programs
Transportation
The Governor’s FY2025 budget provides matching funds for Alaska Marine Highway ferry replacement grants using Federal toll credits.
Commissioner of the Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) Ryan Anderson said the budget continues to focus on operational and capital repair needs to keep the Alaska Marine Highway system focused on restoring health and improving service.
“Right now, this budget includes funding to actually run seven ships and to keep that system working. Right now, we’re not able to run that many because of the crew,” he said. “And so, that’s just one thing that the budget does have enough money to run and improve service. Right now, our restriction is just the amount of people we can find to work on the vessels.”
They are focused not only on the vessels but also on the docks and port infrastructure. Alaska received over 71 million in 2023 grants from the Maritime Administration, in addition to 112 million awarded in 2022.
It also includes $2.5 million for Statewide Polyflor Alkaline Substances (PFAS) Fleetwide Equipment Foam Replacement.
“There’s new technologies that have come out now with new products where there are PFAS freeze foams that are just coming out. And so, as a department and as a state, we’re going to be taking advantage of this,” Anderson said. “We’re gonna start transitioning at our part 1 139 airports, these airports where Alaska Airlines and these other air carriers go into daily that serve our communities.”
An additional $915,000 is set for contracted urban snow removal when unexpected snowfall exceeds existing operational capacity.
SNAP Backlogs
Alaska’s Health Department worked through one food stamp backlog only to come head to head with another.
Chief of the Governor’s Staff, Tyson Gallagher, gave background on that issue. He said a big difference between the previous SNAP backlog and this one is that in the prior one, the federal government waived the requirement of an interview for every application. This time, the Alaska Department of Health (DOH) applied for the same waiver at the request of the federal government and was denied.
That adds 12,000 interviews that DOH must do as part of the process, an added time to each application and review.
Commissioner for the Department of Health Heidi Hedberg said she has paused the interviews. In addition, they are receiving client statements to confirm financial information.
She said along with these immediate actions, they are taking steps to prevent Alaskans from experiencing backlogs in the future.
“During the last legislative session, there was funding appropriated to the Division of Public Assistance specifically on IT. And that funding is starting to come to fruition. So later this month, the month of December, we are going to be launching the online SNAP application. It’s very similar to completing a PFD application,” Hedberg said. “By launching that online SNAP application we’ll be able to prompt and ensure that we’re collecting all of the information so that our eligibility technicians have everything upfront.”
They are also reducing the paperwork to maximize staffing time. Along with the online SNAP application, more IT upgrades are set to come in the next 8 months, Hedberg said. These will include a self-service portal to check the status of an application and a choice to opt in to email notifications rather than mail.
The Governor’s FY2025 budget also provides funding for 30 more permanent full-time Eligibility Technician positions to process SNAP applications and $5 million to food banks and food pantries across Alaska.
The budget can be amended at any time during the Committee process and legislative process.
