Analyst David Teal Honored for Service to Alaska, Nation.

• Author: MacKeller, Erica

David Teal, director of the Legislative Finance Division in Alaska, is the 2019 winner of the Steven D. Gold Award for his significant contributions to public financial management and state and local finance. Teal was honored at the Capitol Forum in December for his commitment to strengthening the legislative institution in Alaska and around the country.

Teal has been in state government in various capacities for nearly 37 years, the last 22 of them as director of the nonpartisan Legislative Finance Division. During his tenure with the legislature, he has strived to provide the body with precise, unbiased data and research to inform the decision-making of Alaska's lawmakers. Teal says his goal is "to make the budget process work as smooth as it can, making sure that everyone is working from the same basic assumptions on revenues and expenditures, so legislators are not arguing about the facts, but are just debating policy. That doesn't make it easy, but it certainly helps."

Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon (I), who has known Teal since he joined the finance division, describes Teal as even keeled. "I've never once seen him off his game under the most trying of circumstances," Edgmon says. "David has kept his cool every moment in his work with the legislature."

As a former president of the National Association of Legislative Fiscal Offices and the Western States Legislative Fiscal Officers Association, Teal has provided expert guidance to legislators and legislative fiscal staff across the country and has mentored many legislative fiscal...