Fiscal division heads into budget season under new management

The Legislative Counsel Bureau's Fiscal Division is heading into the budget season under almost entirely new management.

The turnover began about a year ago with the retirement of longtime Senate analyst Gary Ghiggeri and Assembly analyst Mark Stevens - both with more than 35 years in state service.

But a sequence of events has since removed both of the analysts who were originally trained to replace them. Brian Burke backed out of the Senate spot for personal reasons. Tracy Raxter retired a week ago.

In addition, the office has lost several of the most experienced analysts on staff over the past two years including Steve Abba, Larry Peri and Bob Atkinson.

But LCB Director Lorne Malkiewich said he isn't concerned about fiscal's ability to get the job done this fall and through the 2011 Legislature because replacements for all of those management positions are veteran analysts moving up from within the existing staff.

The latest appointment, Rick Combs, is expected to be confirmed as Raxter's replacement in the Assembly analyst's seat by the Legislative Commission on Friday. Combs has been with fiscal since November 1997. A lawyer by training, he was in the Legal Division two sessions before that.

Mark Krmpotic was named Senate analyst after Ghiggeri's retirement. He is a veteran of 10 years in LCB fiscal. Before that, he worked for the state budget division.

In addition, economist Russell Guindon was installed in the newly created principal analyst position over the revenue-side staff.

Malkiewich said that promotion is really just recognizing the level of responsibility Guindon has had in managing staff economists and generating revenue projections.

The fiscal staff consists of about 25 people, 20 of them in professional positions.