Senate Finance adopts committee substitute for HB 53 as working document; bill moves to amendment deadline

Juneau — The Alaska Senate Finance Committee on Monday adopted a committee substitute (CS) for House Bill 53, the FY 2026 operating budget, designating the CS as the committee’s working document and setting a deadline for amendments.

Senator Steadman moved adoption of the CS and, after an explanation by staff, the committee removed objections and approved the CS by voice. Pete Eklund, operating budget coordinator and staff to the committee, reviewed changes between the prior CS and the version before the committee.

Eklund said the CS adopts subcommittee recommendations for agency operations with a few exceptions: it adds $250,000 of unrestricted general funds to the Department of Education for career and technical education (CTE), removes a previously proposed cross‑appropriation authority that would have allowed departments to move up to $5,000,000 between maintenance and operations and other appropriations, and moves Alaska Marine Highway System operations into the number section for calendar 2026 operations.

The CS includes new lapsing language that directs the unexpended, unobligated balance of any general fund appropriation available for lapse at the end of FY 2025 to the school major maintenance fund, not to exceed $30,000,000. The bill also appropriates the POMV payout under existing statute to the general fund (Eklund said this is about $3,800,000,000) and directs 25% of that POMV payout to the dividend fund (Eklund estimated about $950,000,000, which the staff said would approximate a $1,400 permanent fund dividend check).

Eklund outlined numerous technical fixes, conforming changes and program‑level adjustments across the bill: adjusted debt service shares where federal funds cover part of payments, reductions to school bond debt reimbursement totals, an increase in the fire suppression appropriation to bring the fund balance toward a five‑year average (an added unrestricted general fund appropriation of $74,300,000), and a $20.3 million increase to the disaster relief fund to match a five‑year average of disaster spending. He also said the CS adds contingency language that would appropriate up to $700,000,000 to the statutory budget reserve if revenues exceed a specified threshold.

On high‑level totals, Eklund told the committee, “this bill in front of you has $4,600,000,000 of UGF. Statewide items is another 4,530,000,000. The permanent fund dividend is $950,000,000 for a total of just over $6,039,000,000 of UGF.” He also presented an all‑funds total of roughly $13,990,000,000.

Committee members asked for clarifications about specific line items. Senator Stedman and others discussed increases to fire suppression and disaster funding in the context of wildfire and landslide risks; Eklund said those increases were intended to bring fund balances in line with recent multi‑year averages and to provide readiness for the coming season. Senator Kaufman asked about the fiscal treatment of a previously discussed $4,000,000,000 transfer linked to inflation‑proofing the Permanent Fund; staff said the Permanent Fund calculations they saw did not assume additional inflation proofing compounding for that transfer.

With no sustained objections, the CS was adopted and set aside; the committee set a deadline of 4 p.m. tomorrow for Finance amendments to be submitted to the chair’s office.