Senate asks house to reconsider reverse sweep bill

JUNEAU -- The Alaska Senate has requested that the House rescind an amendment made to Senate Bill 283, a bill which would allow for a reverse sweep of constitutional budget reserve funds, freeing up additional education funds for FY 2005. While legislators from both sides of the aisle say they are in favor of using the CBR to pay for increases to education, the Senate majority voted to request the House to reconsider an amendment made to the original bill. The amendment provided nearly $10 million in capital projects to go along with funding education.

"The giraffe became a zebra," said Sen. Lyda Green, R-Wasilla. "This bill wasn't supposed to do anything else (besides the reverse sweep)."

Senate Democrats say the action taken by the majority last week actually set the education funding process back a step, while Republicans like Green say including capital projects in the bill goes beyond the original intent.

"If you are going to have extra projects, they should be major education projects," said Green, referring to Senate Bill 35, which appropriates $98 million to K-12 and university education and another $7.4 million for the Department of Education's top maintenance projects. The $7.4 million for those projects is being considered by many as a replacement for the capital projects funded in SB 283.

Now that the SB 283 is back in the House, Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Palmer, said it's possible the House may wait until SB 35 is sent over before deciding on the fate of SB 283.

SB 283 provides a funding source for SB 35, which would appropriate the funds to education. Once the funds are appropriated, another bill, such as SB1, would be required to address the increase of the per-pupil allocation for the education foundation formula. If the House chooses not to rescind on the amendment to SB 283, the bill will go to conference committee with members of both the House and Senate discussing the bill's fate.

Green said if the bill's amendment is taken out, she is planning on voting yes on SB 283.

"I'll vote for it without all the rural capital projects," said Green. "Those things rightfully belong in a capital budget."

Gatto said he thinks that the SB 35 and the projects funded through that bill are 'superior' to SB 283, and that he doesn't mind reviewing the amendment in SB 283 once SB 35 is in front of him.

"As long as it is the right amount of money and it's going to the right place," said Gatto.

Contact Jen Ransom at jen.ransom@frontiersman.com