Legislature may vote down governor’s Executive Order on Department of Agriculture

The state Legislature plans to meet in joint session Wednesday to take up Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s Executive Order creating a state Department of Agriculture. For various reasons, mainly money, lawmakers may vote it down.

That’s not the end of the story, however. In lieu of the Executive Order the Senate Rules Committee introduced a bill last week to create the department in statute. A similar bill is expected to be introduced in the state House this week. This may delay creation of the department until 2026, because the 2025 legislative session is about half over and lawmakers have many pressing issues on their hands.

But there are advantages in taking more time, too. A bill in the Legislature will pass through several committees in both the House and Senate and will receive a lot of scrutiny, including by the public in public hearings.

An Executive Order, on the other hand, goes into effect as the governor has written it and with no public hearings or opportunities to change it. In contrast, a bill can be amended, and changed, in response to new information and public comments.

As a starting point the bills as introduced will match the language of the Executive Order in creating the new department, but the legislation will almost certainly change.

The state currently has a Division of Agriculture that is within the Department of Natural Resources, and the division is based in Palmer. The governor’ proposal is to make the division a department, with essentially the same functions, but with its status elevated within the state.

A new Commissioner of Agriculture will attend cabinet meetings in the governor’s office and will become a stronger voice for farmers. The change will also give the state more clout in attracting support from federal farm programs. The new department will continue to be based in Palmer and its most important functions, such as the Plant Materials Center, will remain in the Mat-Su, DNR officials have said.

While the present agriculture division gets strong support from the DNR that agency has many other responsibilities such as oil and gas, mining, state land management and forestry, which includes fighting summer wildfires. Within this mix, farm issues sometimes get pushed down the priority list.

With a separate department, state officials’ attention can be focused on agriculture including within the governor’s office. Another factor is that “agriculture” also includes ocean farming, or mariculture, in addition to traditional farming.

Shellfish farming and harvesting of aquatic plants like kelp are now infant industries in Alaska coastal communities. These are growing and could become economically important in the future. There is currently no state entity supporting mariculture. That could change with a new Department of Agriculture.

There will be some added expenses with creation of the new department, such as a salary for a commissioner and some additional support staff. Legislators are concerned about any new expense or program because of the projected state deficit, which may exceed $500 million.

Legislators say they like giving farmers more support but that if it costs money this may not be the year to do it.

The state has done major reorganizations of departments in the past by executive order, however. A few years ago the former Department of Health and Social Services, or DH&SS, was broken up into two new departments, the Department of Health and the Department of Family and Children's Services. This was done because the former DH&SS had become large and unwieldy so that senior managers could no longer efficiently manage the agency.

The process has gone the other way, too. There was once a Department of Community and Regional Affairs, which focused mainly on rural Alaska communities. Years ago it was merged with the Department of Commerce, to become the present Department of Commerce, Economic and Community Development.