Governor Bill Walker signed the operating and capital budgets late Monday night however no details have been released.
Alaska legislators took two special sessions to reach a budget compromise after a crash in oil prices severely reduced the state’s available revenue.
Throughout the regular and special sessions, many members of the legislature agreed that while the process was tough this year, things are expected to worsen during the next budget cycle.
Just after the compromise was reached, Soldotna Senator Peter Micciche gave a broad overview of what was involved.
Senator Peter Micciche (R-Soldotna): “The total package was higher however some of them were cuts that the governor is going to have to find that will fund the state employee wage increases of 2.5%. So essentially it saw more dollars into education, about $16 million more into education. There were some social program dollars that were added for Pre-K for ferries, for senior benefits.”
Fiscal Year 2016 begins tomorrow.
