Legislators limit others' trips

The House of Representatives wants to rein in state spending by cracking down on travel, but it may be a case of "do as I say, not as I do."

The state operating budget, adopted by a vote of 34-6 on Thursday, includes a 10-percent, across-the-board cut in state travel spending for most agencies.

This comes after a year in which the costs for travel by legislators themselves soared 23 percent, with some spending more than $50,000 each traveling around the state, nation and world. Despite the shorter, 90-day sessions mandated by voters, business at the Capitol crawled to a halt recently as about a third of the Legislature traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend a conference.

Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, co-chair of the House Finance Committee, introduced the proposed spending cut just before the House voted on the state's operating budget last week, without giving state agencies an opportunity to testify about its impacts.

Hawker said that much of what state employees do can be done equally well by telecommunications and more efficient travel. The goal, he said, was to ensure state employees do everything they can to save the state money and "treat the state treasury as if it was their own money."

Finance Committee member Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, supported Hawker's amendment to the budget.

"I think it is a fair approach," he said.

The change cuts a relatively small $2.6 million out of an approximately $7 billion operating budget, Hawker said.

Gov. Sean Parnell's top budget officer, Karen Rehfeld, said agencies spend different proportions of their budgets on travel and will have to cope differently.

"I think all the agencies are concerned about it," she said, especially since most budget requests in the state didn't fully cover rising costs.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute may be particularly hard hit, she said.

"A lot of the work they do marketing seafood involved travel; they're pretty concerned," Rehfeld said.

The Department of Corrections has few options when it comes to transporting prisoners, she said.

"They don't think you can just quit doing it," she said.

Other agencies will not be hit at all, or face smaller cuts if their travel is funded by money other than general fund revenues.

Hawker said that if travel is more important than other budget items, the agencies have the option to transfer money from other line items to travel.

"This is really ... a general statement of intent for the agencies to prioritize and operate more effectively, even though we've wrapped it in the veil of travel," Hawker told the Finance Committee.

The amount cut is 10 percent of last year's travel budget, but would not touch the budgets of the two state agencies with the largest travel budgets - the University of Alaska and the Department of Public Safety.

Hawker said the university was exempted and given the ability to manage its own budget. He said the Department of Public Safety, where travel included such actions as flying troopers to villages and transporting prisoners, has already economized quite significantly.

"I believe public safety is on a pretty shoestring budget as it is," he said.

Hawker's co-chair, Rep. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, said the Legislature itself would not be exempt from the budget travel restriction.

"The Legislature took a cut too," he said.

Last year, legislators spent more than $1 million traveling, or an average of $16,875 per member, up from the $820,193 lawmakers spent the previous year, or $13,670 per member.

The Legislature's travel amounts do not include relocation expenses. The 57 legislators from outside Juneau spent an average of more than $4,000 additional funds relocating to Juneau last year.

State travel manager Sunny Israelson said executive branch departments have been working to reduce travel costs. The effort includes participating in an Alaska Airlines discount program for state employees, which has saved 35 percent or more on tickets in the past few years. The University of Alaska is considering joining the program as well, she said.

One agency that doesn't participate: The Legislature.

The agencies that the cuts would affect were not given an opportunity by the department, but Gara said that agencies such as the Judicial Branch and the Department of Law often traveled because they had to.

If there are problems with the cuts, Gara said he hoped they'd come out in Senate debate.

Sen. Dennis Egan, D-Juneau, said those problems would likely come to light. A former mayor, Egan said across the House's across-the-board cuts are not the way to manage agencies.

"I think it is a crock," he said.

"When you cut travel, the commissioners continue to travel, while the real working people further down who really do the job aren't allowed to go," he said.

He said there could also be constitutional problems with the legislators telling the courts how to spend its money. Any cuts should be made on an agency-by-agency basis, using the budget process to determine the state's priorities. he said.

"When you just do across- the-board cuts, it doesn't work," he said.

Hawker said he expected his budget cut amendment would "certainly spark a valuable debate."

Senate Finance Committee discussion of the operating budget is expected to begin Tuesday.

• Contact reporter Pat Forgeyat 586-4816 or patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.