A House-Senate legislative conference committee that had been scheduled to meet Friday in an attempt to resolve stalled budget negotiations has put off its next meeting until next week.
The committee had been scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Friday after first convening Wednesday. That 10 a.m. meeting was then delayed until 3 p.m. Friday, and then later recessed until 11 a.m. Monday, committee staff said. The postponement frustrated supporters of increased funding for public schools who planned to show up in force at the meeting Friday afternoon.
The committee is trying to resolve differing House and Senate versions of a state budget, with the failure to pass a fully funded budget by June forcing the state to warn 10,000 employees of impending layoffs on July 1. Employees of the Legislature itself and the Alaska Court System will not be affected. Employees of the departments of Corrections, Public Safety and Health and Human Services will not be facing immediate layoffs in the event of a partial government shutdown because their budgets have been funded.
The conference committee is trying to reach agreement on a budget -- either a majority vote to take the $3 billion needed to balance the 2016 fiscal year budget from the Permanent Fund's earnings reserve or the three-quarters vote to take it from the Constitutional Budget Reserve.
Members of the House's Democratic minority have sought changes to the budget passed by the Republican-led majorities in each house in exchange for their support for accessing the Constitutional Budget Reserve, but several tentative deals have failed to win widespread approved in recent weeks.
The conference committee includes three members of the finance committees of each House: two Republicans and one Democrat, and is the latest attempt at reaching a deal to avert a shutdown.