Capitol Report for March 7, 2017
March 7, 2017
By Miles Baker
Associate vice president of government relations, UA system
Today, March 7, is the 50th day of the legislative session.
This week, the House Finance Committee will complete work on the state’s FY18 operating budget with the goal of getting the House bill (HB 57/HB 59) passed to the Senate by early next week.
The committee took up the university’s budget at their meeting last Monday evening. As expected, the committee accepted the university budget subcommittee’s recommendation of $325 million in unrestricted general funds for the university. While this represents level funding for the university it is still $16 million below the board of regents’ request of $341 million. After some lengthy debate, the committee adopted two intent language amendments that were offered by the subcommittee:
- That the university reduce the number of athletic teams at UAA and UAF to the minimum required by the NCAA.
- That unrestricted general fund reductions or reallocations at the three main universities be no greater than those made at statewide administration.
A third intent language amendment related to the difference in administrative costs between UAA and UAF’s athletics programs was not
adopted. You can read the house subcommittee’s report here or watch the House Finance Committee’s discussion of the university’s budget and the amendment votes
Today at 10 a.m. , the committee will begin considering a final round of amendments on the house version of the bill. The operating budget is the only item on the committee’s agenda for the balance of this week. Rep. Guttenberg will be offering a $16 million amendment to restore the university’s budget to the full board of regents’ $341 million request. More than 200 pages of amendments have been proposed, so it is unclear at this point when the university’s amendment will be considered.
You can review the complete four amendment packages here.
The university’s amendments are on page 96 of the last amendment package(pdf).
Read the rest of the Capitol Report.