House finance subcommittee approves DOT budget after rejecting amendment to strip OneDOT items

Juneau — The Alaska House Finance subcommittee moved the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOTPF) operating budget recommendation out of committee on March 3 after members rejected an amendment that would have removed a set of report items tied to the agency’s consolidation effort.

Representative Kerrick offered the amendment to exclude a bundle of report items she said were connected to OneDOT, the department’s reorganization. Kerrick told the subcommittee she had received anonymous feedback from department employees and that "employees are not anonymous when they fill out the comment portal," adding that organizational charts had not been made available. She said the proposal would delete about 24 positions, of which 14 were vacant and 10 were filled, and warned the consolidation appeared to shift oversight toward the commissioner and could undermine regional authority and operations, especially in the Northern and South Coast regions.

"This consolidation will, I think, effectively undermine all 3 regions potentially," Kerrick said, describing concerns that skilled, filled positions could be cut and that frequent reorganizations can worsen operational performance rather than improve it.

Supporters of the administration's reorganization defended the move as an efficiency measure. Representative Garrett Nelson said the department's stated goal was "to place the most qualified people in those specific positions," and that the change was intended to maintain or improve service by putting people where their skills fit best. Representative McCabe and Chair Hannan also urged restraint in directing executive-branch staffing decisions while keeping the administration accountable through funding and legislation.

The subcommittee held a roll call on Kerrick’s motion to exclude items from the BA report. Representative Kerrick voted yes; the other members present voted no and the amendment failed, returning the panel to the original motion to adopt the BA report as the committee’s working document.

Legislative finance staff summarized the adopted BA report. Tim Clark, staff to the chair, said the subcommittee’s recommendation includes $119,505,300 in unrestricted general funds; $59,151,500 in designated general funds; $493,740,100 in other funds; and $5,607,500 in federal funds — a total of $678,400,400. Clark told members the report accepts the administration’s budget items "with no additions" and cited staffing counts of 2,347 permanent full‑time positions, 222 permanent part‑time positions and 92 temporary positions (2,661 total).

The staff summary also noted the governor’s request for more than $7,900,000 in UGF to restore reductions and reverse one-time fund sources in FY26 and referenced roughly $3,500,000 in deleted-position savings associated with the departmental reorganization. Clark said the budget includes funding to implement an information-technology employee classification study and that the Alaska Marine Highway System will move to multi-year funding to provide flexibility amid uncertainty in federal grant programs.

After removing her objection, Chair Hannan announced the subcommittee had adopted the BA report as its working document and, with no objection, moved the FY27 DOTPF operating budget recommendation out of committee with attached legislative finance reports and direction for technical conforming changes. The subcommittee adjourned at 1:02 p.m.

What’s next: The legislative finance division was directed to make any necessary conforming or technical changes before the recommendation proceeds through the legislative process.