March 23

Today marks the 67th day of session. There are 23 days remaining before adjournment on April 15. Legislators are focused on oil and gas tax structures, operating and capital budgets, and pushing towards adjournment holding many hearings to get through the large number of bills still outstanding. Once the session adjourns this year, all legislation not passed ‘dies’.

We are focused on the FY13 Operating and Capital budgets right now, and are pleased to see so many university advocates take an active part in public testimony opportunities, as well as submitting letters and emails of support for university budget items. Keep up the good work! This support makes the difference in the outcome of our budget appropriations for both capital and operating funds, and legislators take note of what they are hearing from their constituencies, especially in an important election year.

FY13 Capital Budget

The FY13 Capital Budget is also underway, and includes funding for 'tangible' items such as buildings, deferred maintenance and research funding. The Senate Finance Committee is currently in possession of this budget and is working on recommendations prior to sending it over to the House. The capital budget is typically used as 'trading stock' in the final adjournment package between the House and Senate, and is usually one of the last pieces of the adjournment package at the very end of the legislative session.

The Senate Finance Committee members are keeping their recommendations close to the chest for the moment, and encourage supporters to send in their letters of support regarding capital budget requests. This past Wednesday night, an overwhelming number of university supporters took time out of their busy lives to spend three hours waiting to testify to the Senate Finance Committee on FY13 capital budget items. Thank you for your efforts. These will pay off in many ways!

FY13 Operating Budget

We are pleased to announce the Senate Finance Committee has closed out the UA FY13 Operating Budget, and the results for the university are very positive.

Thanks to strong advocacy efforts statewide, the Senate Finance Committee members chose to accept the House Finance Committee recommendations for the upcoming years' operating budget, to include the Governor's recommendations of funding salary increases, fixed costs and the Honors Program at UAA and UAF, as well as the addition of many increments requested by the Board of Regents.

Here is what the FY13 operating budget process looks like to date:

• UA Board of Regents submit budget proposal – November 2011
• Governor submits recommendations to legislature – December 2011
• House Finance Committee/House Floor action on operating budget – February/March 2012
• Senate Finance Committee action – closeout March 22, 2012
• Senate Finance Committee public testimony – March 28 (see schedule below)
• Senate Finance Committee action – after public testimony
• Senate Floor action on FY13 Operating Budget – towards end of session
• Conference Committee action just before adjournment April 15

Senate Finance Committee FY13 Operating Budget recommendations to date:

House Budget: Governor’s recommendations plus $4.3 million in state support for the following program areas: improving graduation rates ($1.3 million); engineering retention ($400.0 thousand); health/bio-medical – nursing, vet-med ($939.9 thousand); workforce programs ($749.1 thousand); Alaska research ($300 thousand); and additional legislative priority programs ($590.0 thousand).

The Senate Finance Subcommittee’s (SFS) proposed budget for UA is an $8.0 million (general fund) increase, 2.3%, above the current fiscal year (before one-time item reversals). The proposed Senate Finance Committee budget is $4.9 million above the Governor's proposed amended budget and $.6 million above the House budget.

Senate Finance Subcommittee Proposed FY13 Operating Budget (PDF): House plus $580.6 thousand in state support for: UAA ISER- Alaska education policy research ($250.0 thousand); UAF indigenous studies PhD and Alaska native knowledge network ($250.0 thousand); and UAS honors program ($80.6 thousand).

Wednesday, March 28
Public Testimony - Senate Finance Committee re: FY13 Operating Budget

Note: This is the last opportunity to participate in public testimony on the FY13 Operating Budget. Funding in the operating budget includes salaries, fixed costs and program expenditures. 

Note testimony will be taken only from local legislative information offices at designated times – ‘Offnet’ option available only to participants without a legislative information office in their communities.

Special note: Two-minute time limit per person. Testimony will be closed 15 minutes early if there are no further testifiers.

FY13 State Operating Budget public testimony
Wednesday, March 28 at the following times/locations:

• 8:45 - 9:45 a.m. Juneau
• 10 - 10:45 a.m. Kenai, Valdez, Kodiak, Seward, Matsu, Glennallen, Tok,
• 1 - 2:15 p.m. Anchorage
• 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. Fairbanks
• 3:30 - 4:15 p.m. Ketchikan, Sitka, Wrangell, Petersburg, Homer, Dillingham,Cordova
• 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. Bethel, Kotzebue, Barrow, Nome, Delta Junction, Unalaska, Offnets

March 14, 2012

With five weeks left in the session, there is much activity in the capitol building.

The House Finance Committee passed out their version of the FY13 Operating Budget on March 13th and it’s good news for the university!

The House Finance Subcommittee on the UA Budget (a subcommittee of the whole) recommended the Governor’s numbers, meaning fixed costs, compliance issues and the Honors program funding to base. When the full committee met on March 13, Representative Anna Fairclough and Representative Bill Thomas offered a large amendment to include multiple agency amendments, including the following for UAF:

MAU  Program   GF $ Other $

Student Success 
UAF   Trio Program   $600,000 $273,200
UAF  National Guard tuition  $  80,000

Workforce Development
UAF  Vet Med   $200,000 $200,000
UAF  Early Childhood Ed  $144,000
UAF   CEM (Engineering)  $400,000  $400,000

Research
UAF  RAP   $300,000 $472,600

Other funding
UAF   CES 4-H/FFA  $250,000 $750,000

The FY13 operating budget is scheduled for House floor action on March 15 and will then head to the Senate Finance Committee where it will receive numerous hearings, including another opportunity for public testimony.

Many, many thanks to all those active advocates who took time to write letters, meet with legislators and attend the House Finance Committee’s public hearing on the operating budget. Your voice was heard, and it incentivized House Finance Committee members to vote for the UA amendments.

On the capital budget front, UA was on the schedule March 13 in the Senate Finance Committee. UA President Gamble presented the UA capital budget request to include the deferred maintenance request as well as the research requests.

UAA and UAF governance students came back to Juneau this week to encourage positive action on the UA FY13 operating budget. Confirmation hearings will take place for UA Student Regent Mari Frietag on March 16.

Several members of the UAF Alumni Board will be in Juneau from March 17 - 20 to advocate for UAF. Joe Hayes, Jim Dixon and Tania Clucas will also meet with the UAF Student Investment Fund leaders and attend their presentation to the House Labor & Commerce Committee on March 19.

Gwen Holdmann, Director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, will give a luncheon presentation March 20 in the state capitol to legislators and staff. She will be focusing on "Diversifying Alaska’s Economy through Applied Energy Resources" to give legislators an overview of UAF research in this area.

Please note: Expect to see another ‘call to action’ from the Senate Finance Committee within the next couple of weeks to support UA FY13 operating budget.

We appreciate all the hard work of our active advocates and encourage you to keep up the good work!

ALERT: ACTION NEEDED!

House Finance Committee announces public testimony on March 6-7 for FY13 Operating Budget

Date	Time	Location
Tuesday, March 6	1:30-2:30 p.m.	Juneau
	2:45-3:45 p.m.	Bethel, Kotzebue, Barrow, Nome, Delta Junction, Offnets
	4-5:15 p.m.	Anchorage
Wednesday, March 7	1:30-2:45 p.m.	Fairbanks
	3-4 p.m.	Sitka, Wrangell, Petersburg, Dillingham, Cordova, Unalaska
	4:15-5 p.m.	Homer, Kenai, Valdez, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Mat-Su, Glennallen, Tok, Seward

Legislative Information Office locations

UA FY13 operating budget:

The House Finance Subcommittee for the University has endorsied the Governor’s numbers to maintain a ‘hold the line’ budget for the FY13 UA operating budget.

However, Representative Fairclough has indicated there may possible amendments to include funding for student success initiatives, and a number of high-demand workforce programs including engineering and nursing in the Board of Regents’FY13 operating budget request. These amendments may be offered when the full budget comes before the House Finance Committee in mid-March.

These amendments have a better chance of making it into the University budget IF the House Finance Committee hears from supporters of the initiatives to back up their actions. This is where the public testimony becomes very important. Legislators keep a tally of how many individuals support the initiative, the names of those that testify and the compelling stories they hear.

The House Finance Committee will take public testimony on March 6 and 7.  Participants must go to their local legislative information office (LIO) to testify, and will have two minutes to make their case.   The Committee will close out the hearings if testimony has ended 15 minutes before the allotted time ends.

What do I say?

(Note: You will have two minutes to make your case)

• Identify yourself by giving your name and affiliation. If you know your House District even better!
• State why you are testifying.
• Pick two or three bullet points about the importance of the initiative.
• Then Tell Your Own Story!

What are the currently unfunded university   FY13 operating budget initiatives?
(See Pages 36-47 of FY13 UA BOR request book)

New Initiatives to Improve Graduation Rates 
These requests support UA’s responsibility during students “the 3 critical years”. They include supporting UA’s part in the joint effort for insuring college readiness and student success during their three key decision and high attrition years (last year of high school and year 1 and year 2 of college). Specific focus placed on improving retention, timely completion, removing student obstacles, establishing much better performance facts, and creating a common database for student decision making.

Funding to accommodate the growing demand for trained professional in the areas of Engineering, Health/Bio-Medical, Teacher Education, and Workforce Development continues to be a top priority for UA. Only through continued investment in these areas will we keep up with the State’s need. The alternatives are to recruit from outside or go without.

Alaska research, economic development, intellectual property
These requests support UA’s newly initiated efforts to create economic value from UA intellectual property commercialization and focused research.