Governor proposes cuts but some funds for engineering building
January 26, 2015
UA associate vice president, state relations
Gov. Bill Walker gave his first State of the Budget speech to the Alaska Legislature on Jan. 22. Walker said he was submitting new fiscal year 2016 operating and capital budgets to the legislature to replace those prepared by the previous administration when oil prices were higher. He said the new operating budget would cut state spending by about 5 percent, with all agencies receiving general fund budget reductions. Cuts are even proposed for popular programs like K-12 funding and municipal revenue sharing. Walker also said that unless oil prices rebound quickly, the state will need to start discussing new taxes next year, because the savings accounts that cover deficits will be empty in three years.
In the governor’s proposed operating budget, the University of Alaska receives a smaller cut than most executive departments. The average non-formula agency cut from the current fiscal year (2015) is 6.5 percent; UA’s proposed cut from FY15 is 2.4 percent. This number does not include some increased costs that UA will be expected to cover (such as pay raises, new building operating costs and utilities increases), which will make the effective budget reduction much higher than 2.4 percent.
In the governor’s proposed capital budget, UA has two items: $8 million in unrestricted general funds to continue construction of the UAF engineering building project, and $8 million in unrestricted general funds for deferred maintenance. There was nothing for UA in the previous version of the capital budget, so this is good news.
These new budgets will now be considered by the legislature. It is expected to make additional cuts to the budgets before they are voted on in April.
For more information, contact Associate Vice President Chris Christensen at cschristenseniii@alaska.edu.
This communication was first distributed through the SupportUA-L listserve, which keeps UA advocates informed about the university's budget and other legislative matters. To subscribe to the listserve, please visit: https://lists.uaf.edu:8025/mailman/listinfo/supportua-l.