Legislators would surplus into cash reserve account, not follow Palin’s plan

House Majority leaders, including House Speaker John Harris, said the preferred plan, at least in the state House, is to put most of the surplus into the existing Constitutional Budget Reserve, a state cash fund that requires a three-quarters vote for withdrawals.

Palin proposed putting substantial funds into the state education fund, essentially forward-funding the state K-12 school support program for three years, and putting substantial funds into the corpus of the permanent fund, which cannot be spent.

In a Feb. 25 briefing by House Majority leaders, Harris, R-Valdez, said putting the money into the constitutional budget reserve has the support of many House Minority members as well as Majority members.

Actually, no special appropriation to the CBR is needed because existing law requires any surplus at the end of the budget year to be automatically “swept,” or deposited, into the fund, Rep. Mike Chenault, co-chair of the House Finance Committee, said at the Feb. 25 briefing.

An updated forecast of anticipated revenues from the Department of Revenue is due in mid-March.