Daily Archives: December 18, 2012

Last Friday (December 14), Governor Parnell announced the Administration’s proposed state budget for Fiscal Year 2014. The full speech is available here. Later in the day, the Administration’s Office of Management and Budget released a more detailed summary of the budget and the Executive Summary of the 10-year forecast, required by the Executive Budget Act, that will accompany the budget submission at the start of the legislative session.

The proposed budget is the first in a constitutionally (Art. IX) and statutorily (AS 37.07) outlined process – normally containing three steps – that ultimately will determine the final state budget for the coming fiscal year. The second step is review and revision of the Governor’s proposed budget by the Legislature, ultimately leading to the passage of its own version of the budget. The third step is subsequent review of the legislatively approved budget by the Governor and, if appropriate, vetoes of various appropriations contained in the Legislature’s budget (the so-called, “line item veto” provided by Art. II, Sec. 15 of the Alaska Constitution). In extreme cases, there is some potential for a fourth step should the Legislature decide that the Governor’s vetoes are excessive; the Legislature can (but very seldom does) override any of the vetoes by a two-thirds vote, reinstituting the specific appropriations otherwise stricken by the Governor. Continue reading →