As Alaska lawmakers contemplate the need to spend from savings to balance next year’s state budget, a unique investment by the state’s departing revenue commissioner is drawing their attention.

Shortly before leaving office in July to run for governor as a Republican candidate, former commissioner Adam Crum approved a $50 million private equity investment with the firm DigitalBridge, using money from the state’s principal savings account.

That account, the Constitutional Budget Reserve, has about $2.9 billion and until now has been invested in ways that can be easily convertible to cash in case the state needs to spend it on short notice.

Private equity investments, which typically involve taking a share of a company that isn’t yet listed on a stock market, frequently take years to matu

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