Alaska Revenue Commissioner Hoffbeck resigns; deputy to serve in interim

Planning to become an ordained pastor within the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Alaska's revenue commissioner said Monday he will resign this month, a decision that comes as the Walker administration continues to work on a long-term fiscal plan the Legislature will accept.

Randy Hoffbeck said in a letter to the governor on Monday that he needs to "complete the call to ministry."

"My only regret is that I was unable to deliver a completed fiscal plan for the state of Alaska during my tenure," Hoffbeck wrote.

By late 2014, Hoffbeck had retired from government after working at the state and North Slope Borough and had completed his master's degree in divinity at Liberty University in Virginia. Then the newly elected governor sought his help in Alaska.

Hoffbeck, now 59, was on a medical mission in Kenya at the time along with his wife, Cindy, providing counseling and spiritual outreach to people visiting doctors.

"We were primarily in the slums of Nairobi," a job that involved working with street children, he said.

Hoffbeck said he joined the administration because he likes fixing things. The state's fiscal deficit was a glaring problem in need of repair.

The administration has failed to convince the Legislature to approve a plan that would partially pay for state services using earnings from the $61 billion Alaska Permanent Fund, or to establish a broad-based state tax.

Hoffbeck and others are currently working on a new plan to fill the $2.5 billion deficit, he said. By necessity, it will involve use of the fund's earnings and additional revenue-generating measures including taxes, he said.

"We're working on a plan to hopefully accommodate both the House and Senate and one that hopefully everyone can agree upon," he said. "It's not ready for prime time, but I think it will be largely structured before I leave."

The governor has said he may call the Legislature into a special session later this year to take up the measure.

[Hoffbeck and Walker administration lay out Alaska budget woes]

Hoffbeck will remain in his post through Aug. 17, a Thursday.

Walker's statement said Revenue Deputy Commissioner Jerry Burnett will serve as interim commissioner until Walker makes a new appointment.

According to the governor's announcement, Hoffbeck said that as "time goes on, I realize I need to refocus my life on the call God has put on my heart; that I can no longer tell God, 'Just a minute. I am almost done here.' "

Hoffbeck said in an interview Tuesday that he's looking forward to taking his fix-it ambitions into evangelical service after he completes several months of training and courses to become an ordained pastor. He'd like to work in the "interim ministry," serving one to two years at a church that had lost its pastor or may be in some form of crisis.

"I jokingly tell people there's a church in the Bahamas that needs my help," he said.

In reality, he said, he'll go wherever he's needed.