This is a developing story. In what the Alaska Legislature’s longest-serving member called the “smoothest ending in 20 years” the Senate adjourned for the year at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday followed by the House a short time later — nearly a day and a half before the mandatory deadline.
The characterization of the final days at the Alaska State Capitol by Sen. Lyman Hoffman (D-Bethel), first elected to the Legislature in 1987, was a marked contrast to what he during previous months called the most difficult year for balancing the budget he has experienced. Legislators on both sides of the aisle agreed the state’s fiscal struggle actually ended up being responsible for the fast finish.
“There’s not much to talk about when you don’t have any money,” Senate President Gary Stevens (R-Kodiak) said during a press conference with other members of the bipartisan majority caucus. “If you look at the things we’ve accomplished — all the bills and all of the resolutions that we passed — they have a lot of resolutions here, I think more so than in past years. And you know it’s been in a tough spot where you can’t you can’t promise people projects. Nobody got a project in the capital budget.”
Sen. Robert Myers (R-North Pole), part of the six-member Republican Senate minority, said “we have set up our government for 50 years now to fight over the money. There’s no money to fight over.”
Key actions by lawmakers on the final day included a successful veto override of an education funding and policy bill, and passing a budget for next year that largely flat-funds agencies and provides a Permanent Fund dividend of $1,000.
The Legislature’s mandatory adjournment deadline was at the end of the day Wednesday. But legislators opted to postpone many contentious bills, such as election reform and reviving pensions for public employees, until the session reconvenes next January to continue the second half of the two-year session.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
