Easing access to the constitutional budget reserve

By Bradners’ Alaska Legislative Digest

Senate Finance co-chair Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, is proposing Senate Joint Resolution 14, a constitutional amendment that would cut the required vote to access the constitutional budget reserve from three-fourths to two-thirds of the Legislature. The proposal was moved out of Senate Finance Committee, but with members taking no position on the measure, the committee report offers an official “no recommendation.” The resolution was scheduled to go to the Rules Committee, where it would have been scheduled for Senate floor action, but was given an unusual additional committee recommendation, to the State Affairs Committee, by Senate President Lyda Green, R-Mat-Su. While not likely to garner the needed two-thirds vote in the Legislature needed for a constitutional amendment, the measure does reflect the lack of consensus on savings and how to save that prevails in both the house and the Senate.