House Finance Subcommittee adopts FY26 Department of Revenue operating budget, denies APFC consolidation
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Summary
The Alaska House Finance Subcommittee on March 25 adopted the Department of Revenue FY26 operating budget and forwarded its Budget Action report to full House Finance, approving a small UGF increase to fund a long-term care ombudsman position and rejecting the governor's requested consolidation of Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation appropriations.
The Alaska House Finance Subcommittee adopted the FY26 operating budget for the Department of Revenue and forwarded the subcommittee's Budget Action (BA) report to full House Finance on March 25, 2025, concluding its review and closing out the subcommittee.
The action was taken during a 9:09–9:25 a.m. session chaired by Representative Neil Foster. The BA report presented a department total operating amount of $482,842,400 as shown in the report before the subcommittee. The subcommittee approved an unrestricted general fund increase of $144,000 to create a new long-term care ombudsman position (classified in the BA as unrestricted general funds but described as funded from the mental health designation) and authorized the Legislative Finance Division to make technical or conforming changes to the BA report before it proceeds to the full House Finance committee.
The subcommittee also denied three governor-requested structural changes affecting the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC). The BA report identifies items 20, 21 and 31 as requests to change appropriation structure for APFC; the subcommittee rejected those requests and retained separate appropriations for Juneau operations and investments rather than allowing the administration to collapse APFC appropriations into a single lump-sum appropriation.
Representative Holland voiced concern about the department's growth when the BA report was presented, saying the department's budget "has gone up 30% in the last year" and asking staff to provide further detail on the major contributors to the increase. Janelle Earls, Administrative Services Director, told the panel, "I don't know that there's one simple answer... The investment management fees, if you look at those separately...look like a lot less was spent in those areas," and agreed to follow up with additional breakdowns for members.
The BA report presented summary-level fund group figures and position counts; the transcript contains some inconsistent numeric transcriptions for fund breakout and position totals. The BA report as presented to the subcommittee shows a department total of $482,842,400 and lists an all-funds increase of $8,916,700 compared with adjusted base. The transcript records an unrestricted general fund increase of $144,000 tied to the ombudsman position and notes the subcommittee added one new position with new funds and a second using existing funds in the Long-Term Care Ombudsman office. Exact line-item fund breakouts and final permanent/temporary position counts were unclear in the spoken record and should be confirmed in the BA report document submitted to House Finance.
Votes at a glance: the subcommittee (members present at the start of the meeting were listed as Representative Moore, Representative Holland, Representative Carrick, and Chair Foster) adopted the BA report and moved the Department of Revenue FY26 operating budget from subcommittee to the full House Finance committee with the subcommittee narrative and authorization for Legislative Finance Division to make technical and conforming changes; both actions were adopted with no recorded objections.
The subcommittee session concluded with instructions that legislative finance would circulate the final narrative and technical adjustments prior to consideration by the full committee.
