The Alaska Legislature is being evicted.<\/p>\n
By May 1, renovations to the Alaska Capitol will force lawmakers to a new location for continued work to fix Alaska\u2019s $4 billion budget deficit.<\/p>\n
That location is likely to be down the street, not across the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my desire and, I think, most of us here in the Senate, that since we\u2019re in regular session and sessions are held in Juneau, we\u2019re going to do it here,\u201d said Senate President Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a switch from last year, when the Legislature found itself similarly deadlocked over budget issues. Instead of staying in Juneau and continuing work, lawmakers gaveled themselves out of a special session called by Gov. Bill Walker, then reconvened in a downtown Anchorage office building leased by the Legislature.<\/p>\n
While Monday was the 98th day of the Legislature and voters in 2006 ordered lawmakers to stick to a 90-day limit written into state law, legislators have tended to ignore that and stick to the 121-day limit enshrined in the Alaska Constitution. That limit was approved by voters who approved a constitutional amendment in 1984.<\/p>\n
Since the 90-day limit became effective with the 2008 Legislature, lawmakers have finished before midnight on the morning of the 91st day only twice. <\/p>\n
Last year, construction noise was a deciding factor in the decision to decamp to Anchorage, lawmakers said at the time.<\/p>\n
The noise is as bad this year, but the mood is different.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing\u2019s been ruled out, but we\u2019re in regular session, and sessions are held in Juneau. My preference is to stay here and just get it done,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n
The Speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, agreed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d rather stay here because it\u2019ll take us a lot longer to spin up (in Anchorage) than it will to finish it if we can come to some agreements,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While lawmakers seem to have reached a consensus that Juneau is the right town, they haven\u2019t settled on the right place.<\/p>\n
The Bill Ray Center, Centennial Hall, the Juneau Arts and Culture Center, the Terry Miller office building (uphill of the Capitol) and Marie Drake Building are all being considered as possible locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll go wherever Pam Varni leads us,\u201d Meyer said of the director of the Legislative Affairs Agency, which handles session logistics.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers toured the Bill Ray Center, formerly owned by the University of Alaska Southeast and now owned by First National Bank Alaska, on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Luke Fanning, regional vice president of FNBA, said he wasn\u2019t able to discuss any matters associated with the Bill Ray Center.<\/p>\n
That building is being considered for legislators\u2019 office space and meeting space for the House and Senate finance committees. Across the street, the Marie Drake Building\u2019s gymnasium could host a floor session.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like Bill Ray Center and other facilities in that area\u201d are preferred, city manager Rorie Watt said on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
He added that the City and Borough of Juneau, through the Alaska Committee, is prepared to help the Legislature in any way that it can.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever they need and whatever they request, we\u2019re going to be Johnny on the Spot,\u201d Watt said.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers could also turn the gymnasium within the Terry Miller building into space for a floor session; when Gov. Sarah Palin held a special session in 2008 to discuss a trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline project, it was held there.<\/p>\n
Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage and the House Majority Leader, was among the lawmakers cleaning out their offices Monday in preparation for a move.<\/p>\n
She said she was doing a little personal moving of her own, too. Like many legislators, her Juneau rental is expiring. She\u2019s moved into the Driftwood Hotel until work is done.<\/p>\n
As for a workspace, she said she\u2019s pragmatic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am of the mind that if I have a laptop and I have a phone, then location doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Alaska Legislature is being evicted. By May 1, renovations to the Alaska Capitol will force lawmakers to a new location for continued work to fix Alaska\u2019s $4 billion budget deficit. That location is likely to be down the street, not across the state. \u201cIt\u2019s my desire and, I think, most of us here in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":12407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-12406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12406"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}