Proposing amendments to the Constitution of the State of Alaska relating to ways and means bills.

Prepared by: Senate Finance
Updated: April 29, 1999

Passage of SJR9 would place before the voters of Alaska a proposed state constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to do "ways and means" bills.

A ways and means bill would be limited to "items determined by the legislature to be necessary to implement appropriations." A ways and means bill would be an exception to the Article II Sec. 13 single subject rule similar to revisors bills and appropriations bills. Since appropriation bills, such as the budget, are exceptions to the single subject rule, it is appropriate and consistent to allow legislation to implement those same appropriation bills also to be exceptions to that rule.

A ways and means bill could include changes in statutes necessary to implement changes in appropriation levels contained in that year's budget or necessary to implement future budgetary revisions. Since new programs created by legislation are funded by fiscal notes, the statutory changes addressed in a ways and means bill is intended to be limited to reductions or funding source changes from current spending.

Legislation to create new programs is funded by fiscal notes and accordingly do not have to be specifically funded in the operating budget Typically there is generic line item funding fiscal notes in the operating budget. Budget reductions and fund source changes in the budget have no corresponding mechanism to automatically make necessary statutory changes to implement those reductions. Accordingly, budget reductions that require a statutory change can currently only be effectively implemented if separate enabling legislation is adopted. This is a much more time consuming and difficult process than the fiscal note process and accordingly makes it much more difficult to eliminate existing programs than add new ones.

Often a consensus on. a program reduction or elimination that requires statutory changes is not reached in time to allow separate legislation on the subject to pass. This prevents real consideration of such budget reductions as the budget bill is finalized. Having the option of a ways. and means bill would facilitate such statutory changes. Accordingly, a ways and means bill could be a powerful tool to facilitate reductions in state spending.

A ways and means bill would still be subject to a governor's veto and require a two-thirds vote to override.

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