The special session came to a dramatic end late Saturday, with the Alaska House adjourning three days early amid a month-long budget dispute with the Senate.
Senators said late Saturday they are being forced by House leaders into spending more and saving less than they wanted after the House suddenly adjourned Saturday, before the mandatory Tuesday end of the 30-day special session.
House Republican leaders rolled out a capital budget that tops $3.1 billion, but is being praised by Juneau’s politically split delegation.
A Democratic legislator said Friday that his analysis of a public records request suggests the only people consulted on Gov. Sean Parnell’s plan to cut oil taxes were those in his administration and the oil industry.
With the state House anxious to adjourn by Saturday, lawmakers worked to clear two of the special session’s biggest obstacles: the capital budget and coastal management.
A new compromise coastal zone management bill was finally made public in the Alaska Senate this week as the final pieces needed to conclude the Legislature’s special session began to fall into place.
Gov. Sean Parnell says he’s asked that $44 million be included in the capital budget to complete funding for the Tanana River bridge.
Alaska’s governor and lieutenant governor would get a pay raise under a version of the capital budget proposed by the state House.
It’s not clear whether that provision will remain; the House Finance Committee is expected to meld the budget it built with one passed by the Senate late Tuesday.
The Alaska Legislature’s top lawyer, Doug Gardner, used the City and Borough of Juneau’s Snettisham Hydroelectric Project to describe the constitutional question facing the state’s leaders.
The Alaska Senate Tuesday broke the legislative deadlock that forced a special session and consumed its first three weeks by passing to the House of Representatives a $2.8 billion capital budget.
Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, said they had little choice if they wanted to protect the state’s economy.