Politics

Voter attempt to limit length of Alaska legislative sessions fails to stop politicians

JUNEAU -- Legislative leaders Monday ignored a state law that could have brought the 90-day legislative session to an end Sunday.

Republican leaders said they had solid ground to do so, because they were relying on the Alaska Constitution's maximum 120-day session limit, not the maximum 90-day session limit adopted into state statute using the voter initiative process in 2006.

"The Constitution trumps the statute," said Rep. Craig Johnson, R-Anchorage, chair of the House Rules Committee, which controls the flow of bills to the floor.

But the will of the people is still reflected, in different ways, he said.

"We always try to do what the people want," he said. But, "We can't leave without getting our business done. That's the commitment we made when we came down here," he said.

While budget negotiations appeared to make little progress Monday, Republicans and Democrats pointed fingers and blamed each other for the extended time in Juneau.

Senate President Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, said it wasn't his or the state Senate's fault that they went past Sunday.

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"We try always to honor the 90-day initiative the voters approved," he said.

But this year, he said, doing so would have required giving in to Democratic demands for more spending.

"The House Democrats are why we are still here past the 90 days," Meyer said.

"Unfortunately, the House (Republican majority) has to negotiate with the House Democrats, so we are all stuck here," Meyer said.

To balance this year's budget, deep in deficit, the state will have to borrow money from the state's Constitutional Budget Reserve, which takes a three-quarters vote. House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, will have to obtain votes from Democrats, led by Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, to augment his 26-member caucus in the 40-member body.

The House of Representatives has already made big cuts to the education budget, and then the Senate made even bigger cuts.

But the need to use the CBR gives Tuck and the Democrats power they haven't had in years. Tuck said they are hoping to use it to roll back a Senate cut of $47.5 million to education per-student funding, House cuts to early education programs, and maybe even a $32 million cut to planned spending proposed by Gov. Bill Walker before the legislative battle even began.

Tuck was adamant it was the Republican majority keeping the Legislature in Juneau.

"We do not control the agenda, they do," he said.

He was particularly critical of the decision by Republicans to wait until Sunday to take up the hours-long confirmation process for Walker's appointees.

That indicates an expectation all along they were going to an extended session, he said.

"Who in the world schedules confirmation hearings on the last day of the session? That just takes up all the time," Tuck said.

Tuck said the CBR process that Meyer complained about could have been dealt with earlier. Last week, Chenault publicly acknowledged for the first time, just days before Sunday's deadline, that votes from Tuck's Democrats were needed to access the CBR.

"We have expressed from day one what we want to see coming out of an operating budget and a capital budget," Tuck said, but Republicans weren't interested in opening negotiations on getting Democratic votes.

Chenault had earlier explored ways to access the CBR without the three-quarters vote but abandoned those plans last week.

He had previously discussed with reporters the possibility of an extended or special session but said he expected it would be more likely that more time would be needed for hot-button issues such as Medicaid expansion than the operating and capital budgets. At the time he said he'd prefer to have Walker call a special session with limited items on the agenda, rather than an extended session in which all bills would remain in play. But at the time he also said he expected those budgets would be done.

Sunday, after the confirmation hearing process on the session's 90th day, the Legislature stopped work and said it would resume regular floor sessions and committee meetings in the following week. But most regular committee work appears stopped.

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Johnson said Monday it may be a good idea for the Legislature to take formal action to extend the session.

"There is an extension we can do, which is a vote of the body," he said. "If we stay much longer I expect us to probably do that."

The Constitution gives legislators authority to extend its 120-day session by 10 days, if needed. The law mandating a 90-day session includes no provision for extension.

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