JUNEAU -- Top House Republican and Democratic leaders have begun negotiations on passage of the state budget, acknowledging for the first time that they'll have to reach agreement on pulling money locked in the Constitutional Budget Reserve to balance this year's budget.
Budget deficits this year are expected to wipe out the state's easily available savings account, the $2 billion Statutory Budget Reserve. That will force lawmakers to dip into the Constitutional Budget Reserve. But unlike the statutory reserve, tapping the constitutional account requires a supermajority -- 30 of the 40 House members.
That means Republican House Speaker Mike Chenault will need votes from the 13-member Independent Democratic caucus to balance this year's budget from savings.
"I talked with the minority leader about that issue and will continue to have conversations to come into alignment to get a CBR vote," Chenault told reporters Thursday.
Chenault had been looking for ways around giving Minority Leader Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, leverage in the process. Chenault's comments Thursday were the first public acknowledgment that he'd need help from Democrats and that Tuck could use that leverage to secure concessions in the budget process.
"I don't call it a list of demands, but I've asked Rep. Tuck to bring me back some issues we can discuss," Chenault said.
Tuck said he's already had some discussions with Chenault, but "we've been avoiding sharing must-haves -- we don't want to start negotiating too soon," he said.
But he said Democratic priorities have been obvious all session.
"I can tell you what's really important to our caucus is getting Medicaid expansion this year, making sure that public education is made whole and keeping a vibrant ferry system," among others, he said.
A key issue is likely to be restoring some cuts, including $47.5 million the Senate slashed from school funding.
House leaders said they don't agree with those cuts anyway and will work in a House-Senate conference committee on the budget to restore them.
Tuck said he'd like to see the Legislature go further and reverse other cuts as well, including Gov. Bill Walker's elimination of an increase in education funding that had been slated for next year — a task that would require agreement to suspend the Legislature's rules.
That's something that the operating budgets passed by the House and Senate didn't include, so that increase would require an agreement to waive their uniform rules to grant it.
"In the end, we can do whatever it takes to make things happen," Tuck said.
Democrats also introduced a bill Thursday increasing education funding's base student allocation, the per-pupil support given by the state to local school districts. Tuck said that bill will provide another option for implementing an agreement, if one is reached.
Also Thursday a new version of the the capital budget, passed by the Senate, was rolled out in the House.
Minority Democratic votes were not necessary to pass the capital budget in the Senate, where the majority caucus includes 15 of the 20 senators, but its passage to the House Thursday began the negotiating process, Tuck said.
Walker said Thursday he sided with those trying to restore education cuts.
"I think it has gone too far, I think we need to put funding back in," he said.
Alaska Dispatch Publishing