Alaska News

Alaska Legislature's first day of overtime starts with a whimper

JUNEAU -- Rank-and-file legislators trickled into the Capitol later than usual Monday as Republican and Democratic leaders met to try to resolve a budget impasse that extended the Alaska Legislature's 90-day session past its scheduled adjournment Sunday night.

Lawmakers canceled a meeting of a joint House and Senate budget committee that was scheduled for Monday morning, and also pushed back a 10 a.m. House floor session until late in the afternoon.

The Senate president's gavel, meanwhile, didn't bang the chamber into session until 2 p.m. Members ultimately adjourned for the day after passing two measures -- one to establish a children's day in June and another to create a committee on federal overreach.

By late Monday, the House also took up the state's capital and construction budget, voting down a string of amendments submitted by the Democratic minority. But they left the chamber without taking action on the full bill.

Several legislators said it was unlikely that they'd finish their business in Juneau before later in the week. But they stressed that the lack of developments in public could be a sign of progress in private, as top House Republicans negotiate budget concessions that are acceptable to their Republican counterparts in the Senate and to House Democrats.

When the joint House-Senate budget committee ultimately meets in public, "what they really do is act on what's already been decided," said Sen. Berta Gardner, D-Anchorage. So the cancellation of Monday's meeting "doesn't mean there's nothing going on," she said.

House Democrats -- or at least some of them -- have to sign off on a deal for their chamber to clear a constitutional three-quarters vote threshold needed to access a big state savings account, the Constitutional Budget Reserve.

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Points of discussion include roughly $80 million in cuts to education proposed by Gov. Bill Walker and the Senate's Republican majority, including a $47 million, or 4 percent, cut to the state's per-student funding formula. Democrats oppose those cuts.

House Democrats are also pushing to restore canceled pay increases for unionized state employees proposed by the Senate, and for expansion of the public Medicaid health care program.

Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, summed up his view of the situation in a newsletter to constituents sent Monday morning.

"At present, the majorities cannot advance their bad operating and capital budgets without a permission slip from us," the newsletter said. "We don't intend to give it out right now."

The three-way negotiations leave House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, stuck in the middle.

Pulling one way is the House Democratic minority, which is asking for more money in the budget. Pulling the other way is the Republican Senate majority, which has proposed steeper spending cuts than Chenault's own Republican caucus.

Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, the House majority leader, said in an interview Monday that her caucus was trying to balance its own agenda with the Democrats' proposal.

Chenault, she said, is "trying to work out some balance in what the minority wants to see in the operating budget while also meeting our guiding principles."

Senate leaders said they had a light workload Monday because they couldn't do more without a preliminary deal between Chenault and Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, the House Democratic leader.

"We're waiting for the House," said Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, on his way out of the Senate's brief floor session Monday afternoon. "The House needs to get their act together, internally -- the Senate has their act together."

That's easy for him to say because the Republican-led majority caucus already has three-fourths of the members of the Senate.

Tuck arrived back in Juneau on Sunday evening after a day trip to Anchorage to see his newborn daughter. He said he met one-on-one Monday morning with House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, for about 90 minutes, with cashews and cookies on the side.

Tuck, who's negotiated contracts in his other job as a union official, said the Democrats' proposal to Chenault includes big items like Medicaid expansion and more money for public education. But it also has smaller ones like reducing cuts proposed to the state's public defender program.

Democrats, Tuck added, were making neither "demands" or even "requests," but instead submitted a "package a lot of people can stand behind that looks good with the public."

Asked about a statement Sunday from Senate President Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, that House Democrats were holding the Legislature "hostage," Tuck responded that it was "fair to say we are not holding public education hostage," or seniors or sick people.

In an interview late Monday, Meyer's position hadn't softened. He said the Senate had taken "a lot of hits" for its $4 billion operating budget proposal, with $100 million more in cuts than the package passed by the House.

"We would hate to see all that hard work, good work be taken away, just because a handful of Democrats wanted to spend more money," he said. The public, Meyer added, has demanded cuts with the state facing a $4 billion deficit stemming from a drop in the price of oil -- revenues from which fund the vast majority of state government and services.

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Meyer said his Republican majority was awaiting a budget proposal to emerge from the negotiations between Tuck and Chenault -- a process in which Meyer was not participating. Once that happens, Meyer added, Chenault has "got to sell it to us."

While legislative leaders arrived early Monday for budget discussions, others spent their mornings outside the Capitol. Rep. Kurt Olson, R-Soldotna, said he arrived late after sleeping in and starting to pack.

"I think we're just waiting," Olson said in an interview as he stood at the elevator with a plate of cookies from the legislators-only lounge. He said he expected the session to last for "two or three more days."

As legislators and staffers postponed travel plans, one question that remained was how the Legislature's treatment of Medicaid -- or lack of it -- would affect their adjournment schedule.

Members of the Republican majorities have said they're not ready to act on measures expanding the program that Walker has submitted to the House and Senate. But Walker, in a news conference Sunday night, reaffirmed his intention to keep lawmakers in town until they've addressed the issue.

"We're inclined to give that one more push here," he said.

If Walker ordered legislators to stay in Juneau to work on Medicaid, Meyer said: "We would honor it, and try to get something resolved."

"And if we couldn't, we'd adjourn," he said.

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Asked why the Legislature wasn't holding hearings and debate on Medicaid during their extended session, Meyer responded that committees "are pretty much shut down."

"We're focused on the budget issue the House is having with the minority," Meyer said. "We pretty much have said we're done, we've done our work and we're ready to go home."

Meanwhile, there was still no vote or debate to override a Friday veto from Walker striking down a bill from Chenault. The measure, House Bill 132, was aimed at thwarting the governor's plans for a state-controlled natural gas pipeline from the North Slope.

The acrimonious fight between Walker and Republican legislative leaders over the bill was one of the focal points of the legislative session. But there's been scant discussion about the measure since Walker vetoed it, in spite of a section of the state constitution that says the Legislature "shall meet immediately" in a joint session to reconsider passage of a vetoed measure.

The Legislature held a joint session Sunday for votes on Walker's political appointees, but didn't bring up the bill. Meyer afterward suggested that Chenault didn't have enough support for an override.

Asked Monday if lawmakers could still act on his bill, Chenault responded: "We're still in session."

He said the definition of "immediately" is "debatable." Based on a legal memorandum, it could be anywhere from one day to 13 days, he said.

Asked about Walker's view, a spokesperson referred to a state law that references the constitution and the Legislature's internal rules. Those rules say the House is supposed to "promptly" request a joint meeting with the Senate to reconsider passage of Chenault's bill.

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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