If the Alaska Legislature goes into special session this year, Sen. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, is again promoting the idea of a meeting on the road system.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Stoltze updated Senate Concurrent Resolution 16, a measure he put forward last year to urge Gov. Bill Walker to hold any special session in the Railbelt.<\/p>\n
The resolution didn\u2019t advance, so Stoltze is renewing it.<\/p>\n
Stoltze said he doesn\u2019t know if a special session will be needed this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of a self-fulfilling prophecy but how to address any future special session,\u201d he said in the Senate State Affairs Committee, which he chairs and where the resolution was introduced.<\/p>\n
A resolution lacks legislative power \u2014 if passed by the full House and Senate, it would serve as little more than a letter to the governor saying the Legislature wants a special session (if there is one) on the road system.<\/p>\n
Stoltze said he decided against binding legislation for a simple reason: \u201cThe governor has said he would veto it,\u201d Stoltze told the committee.<\/p>\n
This summer, the Alaska Capitol is scheduled to undergo the third and final year of renovations intended to maintain its facade and reinforce the building against earthquakes.<\/p>\n
Those renovations were a key point in the Legislature\u2019s decision to hold one of its three special sessions in Anchorage last year.<\/p>\n
With this year being the last of construction, and the contractor being held to a performance bond \u2014 it must finish on time or pay a penalty \u2014 \u201cI don\u2019t want the state, for political reasons, forcing us to stay in this building during construction season,\u201d Stoltze said.<\/p>\n
Last year, lawmakers went beyond the 90-day statutory limit for legislative sessions, and instead relied upon the Alaska Constitution\u2019s 121-day limit.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers worked to the 98th day, then Gov. Bill Walker called a special session to finish budget work. That special session lasted 24 days, until lawmakers adjourned themselves and immediately called a second special session, this time in Anchorage.<\/p>\n
That special session lasted 22 days, finishing its work June 11.<\/p>\n
In the fall, Walker called a third special session to address the buyout of natural gas pipeline partner TransCanada. That special session lasted 13 days.<\/p>\n
This year, a special session is not thought likely, but it remains possible if a deadlock over budget cuts and new revenue develops in the final 30 days of the regular session.<\/p>\n
Stoltze said his resolution only applies to the last part of the second session of the 29th Alaska Legislature and does not involve moving the Legislature permanently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If the Alaska Legislature goes into special session this year, Sen. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, is again promoting the idea of a meeting on the road system. On Tuesday, Stoltze updated Senate Concurrent Resolution 16, a measure he put forward last year to urge Gov. Bill Walker to hold any special session in the Railbelt. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[34,230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-alaska-legislature","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653","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=2653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2653"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}