{"id":75914,"date":"2021-09-27T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/next-special-session-to-begin-monday-not-friday\/"},"modified":"2021-09-28T17:11:30","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T01:11:30","slug":"next-special-session-to-begin-monday-not-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/next-special-session-to-begin-monday-not-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Next special session to begin Monday, not Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"
This article has been updated to include new information. <\/em><\/ins><\/p>\n The start date of the next special session of the Alaska State Legislature has been pushed back from Oct. 1 to Oct. 4, the governor’s office announced.<\/p>\n The session will be the Legislature’s fourth of the year and is so far dedicated to finding a resolution to the state’s fiscal deficit. Many lawmakers and the governor say resolving the state’s long-term fiscal issues is a priority but there are deep divisions over how best to do it.<\/p>\n Earlier this year the state House of Representatives took over a month to organize due to staunch divisions in the body. Following a fractious session, Dunleavy called two special sessions for the summer, one of which was originally dedicated solely to resolving the deficit. But deep divisions over the state’s budget, the size of the Permanent Fund dividend and efforts to provide additional support to Alaska’s health care infrastructure ended up consuming most of what turned into three special sessions.<\/p>\n