JUNEAU -- The Alaska Legislature adjourned for the year Sunday night with an end to the nasty fight between Gov. Sarah Palin and lawmakers over an open state Senate seat. Palin ended the long stalemate by giving the Senate Democrats the appointee who they wanted, former Juneau mayor Dennis Egan.

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Dennis Egan

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"The Senate Democrats, the administration and the Juneau Democrats needed a conclusion -- closure -- to this issue. It made sense to put in Dennis Egan," Palin said.

Her move provided a conciliatory ending to a legislative session in which Palin and legislators of both parties were often at one another's throats.

It was also a session in which little major legislation was passed. The biggest issue was the federal economic stimulus money -- and that fight between Palin and the Legislature remains unresolved as legislators head home.

The Legislature voted overwhelmingly to accept all of the $930.7 million in federal economic stimulus money the state can get. But Palin has resisted accepting nearly a third of the money and would not rule out vetoes on Sunday.

"We will kind of on a case-by-case basis decide what to do with each one of the dollars," she said.

Palin's major bills failed to pass this year, including a measure to consolidate the six Railbelt utilities to pursue mega-projects like the Susitna River dam. A bill she supported that would require parental notification when a teenager gets an abortion stalled in the Senate in the final days of the session.

But not a lot of other bills made it through, either. Anchorage Democratic Rep. Mike Doogan characterized it as an "unexceptional" session, and not particularly productive.

"They had a pretty limited agenda, and they mostly got it done," Doogan said,

Legislative leaders said the session was mostly devoted to hashing out the implications of taking the stimulus money and crafting budgets in a time of faltering revenues.

"I don't think my constituents sent me down here to pass bills. They sent me down to pass a budget," said Mike Chenault, the Republican state House speaker from Nikiski.

Lawmakers passed an essentially status quo budget for state operations but minimized spending on construction projects -- especially compared to previous years. The bottom line is expected to be a draw of about $1.2 billion on reserves.

Legislators talked about creating an energy plan and said that, while nothing tangible came together on it, they are going to keep working over the summer and continue when the Legislature returns for its next session in January 2010.

The Legislature ended up passing 59 of the 440 bills introduced this year. Those that failed included measures expanding children's health insurance for lower-income families, outlawing "price gouging" at the gas pump, reinstating a death penalty in Alaska, and stopping the state, including the Permanent Fund, from investing in companies doing business in Sudan, the African country whose government has been blamed for genocidal killing in the Darfur region.

The Legislature has a two-year schedule so the bills will be alive when lawmakers return next January. Legislators said their work in this 90-day session sets the stage for making more progress on issues during the 2010 session.

The Legislature on its final day did pass an increase in the state's minimum wage. The measure, which takes effect in July, brings the wage from $7.15 an hour to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. Then, starting next year, Alaska workers must be paid at least 50 cents an hour more than the federal minimum.

Some Democrats called the increase paltry and voted against it, but it passed overwhelmingly.

The Legislature also passed a bill Sunday giving $9 million in state funds to a low-income energy assistance program, meant to help with high energy costs in rural Alaska. And lawmakers earlier passed a compromise bill giving cruise lines until 2015 to comply with new wastewater standards, but not allowing the sewage and other discharges to be measured at a distance from the ships in so-called "mixing zones" where it's been diluted by the ocean. Cruise lines say they don't have the technology yet to comply with the standards.

After internal conflicts and closed-door negotiations in recent days, legislators also agreed to give Palin $7 million of the $9 million she wanted for development of an in-state natural gas pipeline. But they put language in the budget saying she must report to them monthly on what she is doing with the money.

"Seven million is better than nothing," Palin said.

She said the money will be used to analyze alternatives for the pipeline. The hope behind such a multi-billion dollar pipeline is to get North Slope gas to Fairbanks and Southcentral Alaska sooner than a potential pipeline to the Lower 48.

It was a session in which political fights often took center stage over policy debates, and the battle over the open Juneau state senate seat was a prime example.

Palin had been insisting until Sunday that the Senate Democrats take another vote on her appointee, Tim Grussendorf, arguing their previous rejection of him was not legally valid because it happened behind closed doors. The Democrats were saying that it was Palin who was in violation of the law.

The Senate seat had been open since Juneau Democratic Sen. Kim Elton resigned on March 2, and there was no conclusion in sight to the standoff. There was talk of lawsuits until, within hours before the end of the session, Palin appointed Egan, whose father was the late Bill Egan, the state's first governor.

The nine Senate Democrats then voted "unanimously and enthusiastically" to confirm Egan to the seat. He was sworn into office Sunday night. While it's too late for him to represent Juneau in this year's legislative session, he will have the job until the seat comes up in the 2010 election.

"It's been a long road to get to this point, but I think that it's an excellent outcome," said Senate Majority Leader Johnny Ellis, a Democrat from Anchorage.

Palin had earlier passed over Egan despite Juneau Democrats pushing him as a compromise candidate when the governor wouldn't appoint their top choice, House Minority Leader Beth Kerttula. Palin said Sunday it was time to move on, and that she considers Egan a good pro-business and pro-development choice.

"It became more and more obvious that the Senate Democrats were looking for someone that was going to be acceptable by the local Democrat party," she said.

Find Sean Cockerham online at adn.com/contact/scockerham or call 257-4344.

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