Alaska lawmakers convened the fourth special session of the 29th Alaska Legislature today, but though the state is 38 days from a government shutdown, urgency was as absent as the lawmakers.<\/p>\n
A quarter of the House and a quarter of the Senate were missing as the special session gaveled in, and action was light amid an expected vote Tuesday that will decide the starting point for nine of the 11 measures on the special session agenda. The other two measures were introduced into the House and Senate on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re that far apart on the operating budget \u2014 or we weren\u2019t last week,\u201d said Speaker of the House Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, who added that he thinks a budget could be wrapped up in a week.<\/p>\n
Other items on the agenda could take more time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve mapped it out broadly, and we can get everything done in two weeks,\u201d said Rep. Sam Kito, D-Juneau and the House Minority Whip. \u201cWill we get everything done in two weeks? That\u2019s a different question, but it\u2019s possible for everything to happen in the next two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
When lawmakers ended the regular session just before midnight Thursday morning, they were partly through the legislative process on many of the bills now being considered in special session.<\/p>\n
Normally, if a bill isn\u2019t done by the end of the regular session, it dies. Any new bill must start from scratch. On Tuesday, the House and Senate are expected to vote on a special resolution that would allow them to override that standard policy and resume where they left off on nine pieces of legislation, including the budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we have to start from ground zero with the budget, that means getting into subcommittees with each of the departmental budgets,\u201d explained Rep. Cathy Mu\u00f1oz, R-Juneau.<\/p>\n
It would mean weeks of work, and the Legislature might not have time for much else, unless it can pick up from where it left off.<\/p>\n
A two-thirds vote of each house will be needed to do that. While the vote in the Senate is assured, the vote in the House will require the support of the Democratic-led minority.<\/p>\n
House Minority Leader Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, said the minority supports the notion of resuming work on everything except House Bill 247, the bill to cut the state subsidy of oil and gas drilling.<\/p>\n
The House passed one version of that bill, the Senate another, and when the regular session ended, HB 247 was about to go to a conference committee to work out a compromise.<\/p>\n
Now, the minority wants Gov. Bill Walker to submit legislation of his own, overwriting the bills passed by the House and Senate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see what the governor has proposed by introducing a new bill from the governor and the modeling that goes along with that,\u201d Tuck said.<\/p>\n
The reason for that? The governor has consistently supported steeper cuts than most Republicans in the Legislature. If the governor proposes a new bill, it\u2019s likely to include more cuts than the measures passed by the House or Senate.<\/p>\n
While the House and Senate would have to examine and presumably rewrite the new bill, it could set the bounds of a compromise that would land in a position more amenable to Democrats.<\/p>\n
The problem with that approach is one of timing. HB 247 has been seen by some in the Legislature \u2014 particularly House Democrats \u2014 as a prerequisite to passing a budget, but a new bill would have to navigate the Legislature\u2019s committee process. HB 247, which has already gone through that process, needed five months of work and more than two dozen hearings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s going to take up more time than what\u2019s necessary,\u201d said Senate President Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, of the idea of a new bill. \u201cI think people are where they\u2019re at on oil and gas tax credit reform, so I don\u2019t know that introducing a new bill is going to get anything different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuck, for his part, said cutting subsidies is a must-have.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think Alaskans are going to be happy with us if we\u2019re making cuts to public education … but yet paying out these huge tax credits to the richest industry in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked what the next weeks will bring, Chenault responded, \u201cI have no clue.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there is no budget by June 1, state employees will receive notices warning that they will be laid off.<\/p>\n
If there is no budget by July 1, those layoffs will take place. Alaska\u2019s government will shut down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get the budget through. We need to get the minority\u2019s support so that come June 1, we\u2019re not sending out pink slips. That is incredibly important,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Empire reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n
Related stories:<\/p>\n
Alaska Legislature quits without finishing work<\/a><\/p>\n Double overtime: As 121st day winds down, Legislature remains deadlocked<\/a><\/p>\n Two weeks until deadline but no challengers for Kito or Mu\u00f1oz<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n