Capital budget session cost nearly $1 million

Pam Varni, executive director of Legislative Affairs, said the bulk of the cost is due to payroll, per diem and travel. She said the figure is expected to rise with some additional payroll and travel costs -- like those associated with changing airline tickets -- still to be tabulated. The authorized special session budget is $1.3 million.

Per diem equates to $232 a day for the 57 out-of-town lawmakers and $174 a day for the three lawmakers from Juneau; it accounted for about $398,700. Also factored into the overall cost: about $900 in services, much of that for laundry, and about $4,500 for commodities, which Varni said was probably for paper and food.

Ten bills were on the special session call, several of which -- including board extensions -- were dealt with fairly quickly. But the overall pace was plodding at best, with the budget impasse that led to lawmakers going into overtime continuing for much of the special session and overshadowing nearly everything else.

Many days, while House and Senate leaders held sporadic talks, other lawmakers had little to do. Days passed without committee meetings, and floor sessions sometimes amounted to little more than introductions of guests and lawmakers gaveling in and out.

Rep. Mike Doogan, D-Anchorage, said he considers the cost of any legislative session the least important part. He said he measures sessions by the results they yield. And if you look at results in this special session, he said, considerable time was taken up by people "staring at each other" over the capital budget and a coastal management bill. The Senate advanced a budget May 10 after leaders fought for about a month to include language making a package of wide-ranging energy projects an as-is, all-or-nothing deal. Members of the Senate's bipartisan majority bloc said the language was intended in large part to guard against the governor vetoing projects from senators who opposed his oil tax-cut plan. Gov. Sean Parnell said repeatedly that he would not abuse his veto authority and the language was ultimately stripped by the House.

The GOP-led House then adjourned three days before the scheduled end of the session, leaving the Senate either to accept the House version of the bill or leave the state without a capital spending plan. The Senate agreed.

Efforts to reach a compromise on the coastal management program failed in the session's final hours. Lawmakers considered calling themselves back for a second special session to save the program, which is slated to expire by July 1. But they haven't been able to agree on an acceptable compromise.

"You don't want to be spending a bunch of money and people's time with no result," Doogan said.

Sen. John Coghill, R-North Pole and a member of the Senate minority, said he's been through many special sessions during his 14 years in the Legislature and they all came down to differences in policy calls. While he said he didn't like the Senate majority's position on the language, "I do not disparage any organization the right to stand its ground. So I'm not going to be too negative on it." He said policy calls are often left to leaders within the House, Senate and the governor's office, but he said they need majority buy-in from legislators on those strategy issues.