2009-02-27                     Senate Journal                      Page 0380
Dear President Stevens:                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
Under the authority of Article III, Section 18, of the Alaska                                                                   
Constitution, I am transmitting a bill amending the State Personnel Act                                                         
to place in the exempt service the chief economist and state                                                                    
comptroller in the Department of Revenue and certain professional                                                               
positions concerning oil and gas within the Department of Natural                                                               
Resources; and relating to the re-employment of retired state                                                                   
employees.                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
Employment of experienced professional staff with knowledge of the                                                              
oil and gas industry, world markets and science and engineering                                                                 
specific to the oil and gas business is vital to the State's interest. The                                                      
State must have the ability to make informed decisions on issues that                                                           
will have a profound impact on its economic future. The division of oil                                                         
and gas and the division of geological and geophysical survey of the                                                            
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are responsible for assessing                                                             
the state's mineral resources, overseeing the assessment and collection                                                         
of a large portion of the state's revenues related to oil and gas                                                               
development, as well as management of the state's oil and gas                                                                   
resources. DNR, through these divisions, must maintain an                                                                       
experienced professional staff as well as recruit new staff. To do so,                                                          
DNR must be able to offer salaries at least somewhat competitive with                                                           
Alaska's oil and gas industry. Failure to do so could lead to substantial                                                       
future losses in oil and gas revenues.                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                
Additionally, the Department of Revenue has had difficulties                                                                    
recruiting and retaining qualified candidates for the high-level chief                                                          
economist and state comptroller positions at the current salary levels.                                                         
By way of specific example, the state comptroller position has been                                                             
filled by four comptrollers in the previous four years, largely because                                                         
of the non-competitive salary schedule. The Department of Revenue                                                               
has also experienced substantial difficulty recruiting qualified                                                                
candidates for the chief economist due to salary constraints.                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
Finally, the bill would extend the sunset clause applicable to the                                                              
retired employee rehire program from July 1, 2009 to July 1, 2013.                                                              
One substantive effect of this change is to allow those retired                                                                 
employees who participate in either the Public Employees Retirement                                                             
System of Alaska (PERS) or the Teachers' Retirement System of