Frustration about delays in a study of statewide salaries and an unwillingness by the Dunleavy administration to provide a draft report completed last June were expressed by legislators and the head of the largest state employees union during a hearing at the Alaska State Capitol on Thursday.

The $1 million study approved by the Legislature in 2023 was due last June and intended to evaluate the competitiveness of state salaries, especially given widespread workforce shortages including state government vacancy rates that have exceeded 20%. But Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office stated it was ordering additional research and has denied requests from legislators, union leaders and the media to make the draft report available.

The results could provide leverage to employees’ unions seeking higher wages — or to management opposing them — with many of those talks in progress. Officials seeking the release of the draft said the administration’s new timeline of a report being completed by March 31 — but not necessarily released publicly then — is unhelpful since the next fiscal year when salary adjustments take effect starts July 1.

”In March we’re actually going to already have new contracts coming along with more changes, so I’m just really curious why the report that was going to be done in June why we couldn’t see that even though, yes, I understand there’s a bunch of changes, but there’s always changes,” said Rep. Ky Holland, an Anchorage independent, during a House State Affairs Committee meeting Thursday.

Bipartisan coalitions with a majority of Democrats in the Legislature have also attempted in recent years to approve measures such as better retirement benefits for public employees in an attempt to lure and retain employees. Dunleavy and coalitions led by fellow Republican in the Legislature have opposed those efforts as too costly for a state facing a struggling long-term fiscal outlook.

The delay occurred because of a bill passed by the Legislature and new collective bargaining terms last spring that meant the data already collected needed to be updated, Department of Administration Commissioner Paula Vrana told the committee. The administration agreed to pay the company doing the study an additional $80,000 and extended the study’s deadline, but that raised additional concerns among some committee members since specific details about what needed reexamination in the draft study were redacted from the contract agreement released publicly.

“In August the state paid an extra $80,000 for reasons we don’t know for 100 hours of work,” said Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, a Sitka independent. “That’s $800 an hour and we don’t have delivery of that product. That feels like I’m missing something. So could you help me understand how we could not get delivery on 80 hours of work from August until now?”

Vrana said “I would have to get additional information on the nature of the $80,000 amendment, what the scope of that work exactly was, and I will have to follow up with you on that.” The answer didn’t satisfy Himschoot.

“If that is the basis of the delay I think it’s kind of the crux of our conversation today,” she responded.

Heidi Drygas, executive director for the Alaska State Employees Association, told the committee that wage information for the 8,000 employees her union represents is due to the Legislature on the 60th day of the session, which is March 21.

“If the point of the salary study is to inform wages for state employees, and our collective bargaining agreements are three years old, then getting that information after our wage information is due to the Legislature is not very helpful to the members I represent,” she said. “It’s not helpful to the constituents that you represent. It’s not helpful to the Legislature. It’s not helpful to Alaskans at large. The whole point of the information is to inform whether or not we need to increase wages and we represent almost 70% of state employees.”

A challenge to Drygas was offered by Rep. Sarah Vance, a Homer Republican, who asked if her union is collecting its own salary information. Drygas said the ASEA can’t afford a $1 million comprehensive study like the one now being conducted, prompting a further challenge by Vance.

“There are Alaskans who would contend that the purpose of the union is to expand that work for the value of providing a great, a better tool so that you can fight for better salaries,” she said, adding “I just find it interesting that you represent 70% of the state workers and haven’t done as wide of a study.”

The last comprehensive state salary study was in 2009. Drygas said while a widespread comparison of current salaries isn’t available, there are examples showing state employee salaries aren’t competitive.

“According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, federal agencies currently pay 37% more than the state for some equivalent positions including biologists and biometricians,” she said.

The state’s current vacancy rate of about 16.6% is lower than recent years and at about the midpoint of 15 other states assessed so far, Vrana said.

“About half of those are above us in vacancies, all the way to the high 20%,” she said. “Some are down into the 5% level.”

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.