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Legislative Council approves transmittal of FY26 budget to finance committees; ethics office gains staffing increments
Summary
The council approved forwarding the Legislative Council FY2026 proposed budget to House and Senate finance committees, including salary adjustments and increments totaling roughly $2.77 million; the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics received a permanent $20,000 increase and a one-time $90,000 increment for additional staff.
The Alaska Legislative Council voted Feb. 12 to transmit the Legislative Council FY 2026 proposed budget to the House and Senate finance committees for review, approving a request that included statewide salary adjustments and several incremental staffing and operational increases.
Jessica Geary, executive director of the Legislative Affairs Agency, briefed the council on key components of the request. The budget package reflects statewide adjustments related to health insurance and the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) contribution and a 3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) applied under last session’s Senate Bill 259. The transcript lists salary-related increases totaling $2,327,900: health insurance $614,300; PERS $527,600; and a 3% COLA $1,000,186. In addition, increment requests in the council appropriation total $441,100; combined with the salary adjustments, the overall stated increase from FY 2025 to FY 2026 is $2,772,000.
The Select Committee on Legislative Ethics had requested two changes to its allocation: a permanent $20,000 increment to convert an administrative support position from 30 to 40 hours per week, and a one-time $90,000 increment to hire a non-permanent 30-hour-a-week employee to address backlog — a $110,000 total increase the council approved and included in the transmittal. The Administrative Services allocation carries a $292,000 increment for two new positions and off-site package screening maintenance; the state facilities rent allocation includes a $42,100 increase to support the off-site package screening location and leased office space (the transcript notes a $10,000 portion of that increase).
Geary also described non-increment housekeeping adjustments: moving several permanent part-time positions to full-time in administrative services (9 positions), legal and research services (9 positions), and technology and information (5 positions); eliminating two temporary positions that were unfilled; and adding one permanent full-time position to the legislative council chair allocation. The transcript indicates these position changes were budget-neutral transactions used to update position counts.
Senator Kiel sought clarification on converting 11-month positions to 12 months without added budget impact; Geary responded that those positions have been routinely filled at 12 months and the change adjusts vacancy assumptions rather than adding new funds.
By voting to transmit the request per AS 24.28.130, the council sent the package to the finance committees for further action. The transmittal was approved by the council with no objection recorded in the transcript.
