OPINION: Alaska’s state government has a payroll crisis. We need answers.

A fundamental process underpinning state services, agencies and programs has been neglected to the point of collapse by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Department of Administration Commissioner Paula Vrana. State payroll is so deeply mired in a crisis of understaffing and disorganization that it has exhausted the patience of state workers, prompting multiple class action union grievances.

Thousands of employees have reported payroll problems including errors in overtime, hazard pay, merit increases, personal leave, per diem and, recently, failure to be paid on time. Employees are weighing the risks, and anecdotal reports suggest that a breakdown in payroll is a new driver behind the departure of state workers.

State employees have families, mortgages and bills, too, and stories of hardship resulting from payroll failures range from understandably aggravating to potentially tragic. At the rate payroll is currently working through issues, claims will take years to be resolved. The truth is that many state employees work paycheck to paycheck, and some expenses can’t wait.

Put yourself in the shoes of a Division of Public Assistance employee in Fairbanks who was notified by her bank last week that her paycheck had not been deposited and that her mortgage and autopay bills would not be paid.

Without a safety net of their own, some state employees are making ends meet with the help of coworkers, like the supervisor who recently stepped forward to lend rent money to a Department of Transportation and Public Facilities employee in Anchorage whose paycheck was not processed.

Even health insurance coverage for state employees is in jeopardy. A Department of Labor and Workforce Development employee in Juneau discovered her family’s health insurance coverage had been canceled Sept. 1 due to a payroll error.

The situation would be absurd if the impacts weren’t so harmful. No doubt some will enjoy the irony of Alaska wage and hour investigators, responsible for private-sector wage enforcement, finding errors in their paystubs without timely recourse. But it is no exaggeration to say that fair pay for fair work is the golden rule in this country. The administration is familiar with this norm, as the governor’s office itself has a position dedicated to ensuring top officials are paid correctly and on time. Front-line state employees should be afforded the same respect.

Payroll is inherently complex, yet the understaffing and internal instability bear the signature of a state agency made to fail. The low wages and regular turnover of entry-level positions, lack of retention incentives for career professionals, and peculiar absence of leadership have led multiple payroll managers to burn out and leave. Meanwhile, the administration has ignored concerns from workers, grievances from the unions representing them and inquiries from legislators.

It is not beyond the pale to suggest there is an ulterior motive. The Division of Public Assistance was denied staff and support for years until the backlog of SNAP (food stamp) claims finally received statewide and national attention in 2022. The state responded to that manufactured crisis in 2023 by contracting with an out-of-state company to provide 85 employees in violation of a union contract.

Of course, there is an alternative to the complete unspooling at payroll and the quick, if not unexpected, move to privatize this unseen but essential function of state government: Restore the resources, staff and autonomy of state agencies.

The Division of Finance’s payroll section, nested in the Department of Administration, is already subject to the same recruitment and retention obstacles facing all state departments. Yet state payroll is suffering from acute resource starvation and dysfunction under Commissioner Vrana comparable to the manufactured crisis in the Division of Public Assistance. The Dunleavy administration and Commissioner Vrana owe state employees, legislators, and the public an explanation and answers — fast.

Heidi Drygas serves as executive director for ASEA/AFSCME Local 52. She served as the commissioner of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development under Gov. Bill Walker from 2014 to 2018 and was a candidate for lieutenant governor in 2022. She lives in Juneau.

Jordan Adams serves as business manager/secretary-treasurer for Public Employees LIUNA Local 71. He lives in Anchorage.

Both represent nearly 10,000 public employees statewide who perform direct services upon which Alaskans depend every day.

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