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Senate subcommittee adopts FY26 Department of Administration budget closeout report
Summary
The Senate Finance Subcommittee adopted a $333,575,400 FY26 budget action report, accepting non‑general fund increases, reducing several vacant positions, and adding receipt authority and intent language for the public defender agency and the Office of Information Technology.
The Senate Finance Subcommittee on the Department of Administration adopted its FY26 budget action report at a brief meeting that began at 5:15 p.m., approving a $333,575,400 package while declining general fund increases and adding targeted receipt authority and policy intent language.
The subcommittee accepted all non‑general fund increases and recommended technical and conforming edits be handled by Legislative Finance. "I move that the Senate budget subcommittee for the Department of Administration adopt the FY 26 budget action report and the attached wordage report and give legislative finance the ability to make any technical or conforming changes," said Senator Bjorkman when moving the closeout for adoption. Kathy Schlingheide, staff to Senator Kiel, presented the report to the panel.
The report, as described by Schlingheide, includes $93,993,200 in unrestricted general funds, $33,913,300 in designated general funds, $204,381,800 in other funds and $1,287,100 in federal funds, for a total of $333,575,400. The subcommittee reported 1,191 permanent full‑time positions, 4 permanent part‑time positions and 26 temporary positions, for a total of 1,221 positions.
The subcommittee reduced funding and/or positions in several areas, removing one of two deputy commissioner positions, a vacant chief operations officer position and two accounting technician positions recently reclassified and transferred from the Office of Procurement to Property Management. The subcommittee also added $1,571,600 in receipt authority to allow the public defender agency to receive funding from the Municipality of Anchorage to provide contracted public defense in Anchorage municipal misdemeanor cases.
The panel included two pieces of intent language for the Office of Information Technology (OIT): direction to develop a plan to contain cloud services and licensing costs and direction to present a prioritized plan for artificial intelligence projects.
The subcommittee did not adopt any general fund increases but recommended the full Finance Committee give consideration to several requests, including $440,000 to fund guardian ad litem overtime pay, $242,300 for an attorney to provide legal support and leadership to the public guardian section, $1,000,200 for rural public radio, and funding for a single labor relations manager in either the Department of Law or the Office of the Governor (but not both). Senator Kiel raised an initial objection to allow discussion; after Schlingheide reviewed the report and no further objections were raised, the chair removed the objection and announced, "Seeing and hearing none, the motion carries. The report is adopted."
The meeting adjourned at 5:20 p.m. The subcommittee record indicates Legislative Finance may make technical or conforming changes to the adopted wordage before submission to the full Finance Committee.
