Joseph Harrie Hogan

joseph hogan

J. H. “Jay” Hogan
Jay Hogan, who was instrumental in the creation of Alaska’s
Legislative Finance Committee structure, and who served as
State Budget Director for two Alaska governors, died on
December 21, 2022, in Lakewood, Colorado. He was 89 years
old.
Born Joseph Harrie Hogan, III, on May 2, 1933 in Morristown,
New Jersey. He was the eldest child of J. H. Hogan, Jr., and
Lucia MacFarland Hogan. The family was later joined by his little
sister Judy. According to a feature story about the family (titled
“The Harmonious Hogans” in the April 1948 issue of Ladies’
Home Journal) Jay had a happy childhood, during which he
developed a strong work ethic and a lifelong love of music,
particularly for the baritone saxophone, which he played
exceptionally well (including for many years with the Mel Flood
Big Band in Juneau).
Fresh out of high school, Jay chose a scholarship to Dartmouth
College over one to Julliard (although he joined and eventually led
the Dartmouth big band orchestra “Barbary Coast”) and
graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1955.
After college, Jay joined the U.S. Army and served as a gunnery
officer in the 867 th anti-aircraft artillery battalion, including time in
Alaska. In June 1956, 2 nd Lt. Jay Hogan married Harriot Merrill in
Bernardsville, New Jersey. The couple started a family (which
eventually grew to five children: Barbara, Ellen, Pamela, Susan
and Thomas) and moved to El Paso, Texas, where Jay worked
for El Paso Natural Gas Company.
In search of a graduate degree, in 1961 Jay was appointed to
serve as a Carnegie Corporation grant senior intern in public
administration for the State of Massachusetts, which resulted in a

Master of Arts degree in government from the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst. By the mid-1960s Jay and family had
moved West again, where he was able to put his education work
as a fiscal analyst for first the Colorado and then New Mexico
State Legislatures.
In December 1969, Jay and future wife Kaye Starr (who had five
children of her own: Barbara, Deborah, Carolyn, Rita and Laurie)
moved to Juneau, where Jay had been hired as a fiscal analyst by
the Alaska Legislature. Jay and Kaye were married in July 1970 in
a ceremony in the Alaska Senate chamber.
In 1970 Jay was tasked with preparing a proposal for legislation
that would, for the first time, provide the Alaska State Legislature
with its own capacity for professional review of the State budget
independent of the Executive Branch. In 1971 the Legislature
passed and the Governor signed the bill creating the Legislative
Budget & Audit Committee, the Division of Legislative Finance,
and the Division of Legislative Audit.
Jay was appointed the first Director of the Division of Legislative
Finance in 1971. Over the course of the next 11 years, he
engaged the Legislature’s first permanent staff of professional
budget analysts and developed its first computer-based budget
system, allowing the House and Senate Finance Committees to
draft, modify, and record budgets far more quickly and accurately
than before. Among other things, the system provided ready
comparisons of the Governor’s, House, and Senate budgets;
detailed historical budget data; and budget information broken
down by election districts. These tools were critical to the
Legislature as oil revenue quickly transformed the State budget.
Among other legislative achievements, Jay was responsible for
the study which informed the citizens of Alaska the true costs of
moving the Capitol from Juneau to Willow, which contributed to a

“No” vote by Alaskans when asked in 1982 if they supported
paying those costs.
In early 1983, Jay left the Division of Legislative Finance to
assume a director position in Governor Bill Sheffield’s Office of
Management and Budget (OMB), first with the Division of
Governmental Coordination and soon after with the Division of
Budget Review. When Governor Steve Cowper took office in late
1986, he retained Jay as budget director. Jay retired from OMB in
May 1988, and after a brief hiatus, returned to the legislature as
an assistant on budget and fiscal matters for Representative Ron
Larson, including during Rep. Larson’s tenure as Chair of the
Legislative Budget & Audit Committee.
In 1994, while working for Rep. Larson, Jay assisted the
Legislature in enacting legislation re-establishing and funding the
Alaska Mental Health Trust and creating the Alaska Mental Health
Trust Authority. Governor Walter Hickel invited Jay, and he
attended, the signing of the legislation.
Jay and Kaye lived and worked in Juneau for over thirty years,
and after retirement resided in Alaska, Maine, Colorado, and
Arizona, where Kaye passed away in 2009. Jay spent his later
years in Wasilla and the Denver area, where he could be close to
some of his children.
Jay and Kaye became grandparents to 13 grandchildren: Rachel,
Kira, Maya, Isabelle, Daniel, Olivia, Caleb, Maureen, Ted, Jill,
Beth, Jamie, and Jack.
Throughout his career of public service, Jay was the consummate
professional. His influence on the state budget process in Alaska
can’t be overstated. He was also known for recruiting and
mentoring capable staff – many of whom went on to fill numerous

senior management positions in State service, and many of whom
remained close with Jay for over 50 years. He is missed.
Jay is survived by his sister, his children and step-children, and
grandchildren. His ashes will be interred beside his wife, Kaye, in
Lakewood, Colorado at a later date.

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