The Alaska Legislature is headed to a special session after the Republican-led House adjourned rather than taking a potentially organization-fracturing vote on the state budget passed by the Senate hours earlier.
After holding onto the budget until the final day of the legislative session, the Senate made a handful of changes aimed at winning over a handful of moderates from the House Majority in hopes of reaching a breakthrough. The Senate and House have staked out irreconcilable differences on the budget with the Senate demanding a balanced budget and the Republican-led House Majority demanding a $2,700 dividend that would incur a deficit.
The Senate’s final offer was a $1,300 dividend to be paid out this year and then a “waterfall” measure that would have directed part of any unforeseen budget surplus from higher oil prices into an energy rebate that would be paid out next year, up to $500.
In total, it was a far cry from the House-preferred dividend, but Sen. Bill Wielechowski said there aren’t a lot of options or plans to pay for a larger dividend, a cost of about $880 million. No one has advanced enough cuts or enough new revenue to cover that gap and the House has already failed to muster the necessary votes to draw the money from savings.
Wielechowski explained that the changes made to the budget—which included a smaller-than-expected increase to child care grants, senior home care grants and oil tax credits—weren’t part of a direct deal with the House but more aimed at what they believed a majority of the House could vote for. Reading between the lines, they were all attempts aimed at winning over enough moderate Republicans in order to reach a majority with the House Minority coalition of Democrats and independents.
Asked if he thought it would pass, Senate President Gary Stevens was unsure.
“We just don’t know,” he said at a news conference. “We have no idea whether they’ll concur or not.”
The House never got to a concurrence vote before the House Majority stumbled over its own cracks.
While passing a budget takes only a 21-member majority of the full House, skipping the rule that requires legislators to wait 24 hours before taking up a concurrence vote does not. That takes a supermajority of 27, which would take nearly half of the House Majority to break ranks and vote with the House Minority coalition.
Before the House could reach that vote, extreme-right Rep. Kevin McCabe announced his opposition to holding the vote and argued everyone should have a chance to read the budget as he wielded a thick stack of papers in the air. While that was expected, Fairbanks moderate-by-comparison Republican Rep. Frank Tomaszewski standing up to agree with McCabe likely ended any shot there would be enough Republicans willing to get to 27.
That triggered a lengthy break—including a 15-minute period where the House floor cleared out—before legislators returned and House leadership withdrew the motion altogether.
There would be no vote on the budget. Instead, House Majority Leader Dan Saddler brought a motion to adjourn the legislative session.
It passed 22-18.
A minute after the adjournment, Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration released a special-session proclamation ordering legislators to return to work on the budget at 10 a.m., Thursday.
The declaration specifically calls for legislators to continue to work on the budget, which means the House could meet tomorrow and satisfy the 24-hour rule. The question, then, is if the changes made by the Senate are enough to reach 21 votes.
Stay tuned.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
