The Alaska Legislature is poised to adjourn its fifth special session without taking any action to address the 49th state\u2019s multibillion-dollar deficit.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Alaska Senate President Kevin Meyer said by phone that the Senate will turn down an invitation from the House to consider overriding any of the budgetary vetoes signed by Gov. Bill Walker on June 29. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt does appear there isn\u2019t the support to accept the invitation to meet with the House for potential veto overrides,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Senate\u2019s decision leaves the deadlocked House with few options but to adjourn.<\/p>\n
Speaker of the House Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, said the House Majority will meet in closed caucus to decide its next action. The House is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. Friday. The Senate will meet at 11 a.m. Friday.<\/p>\n
Both floor sessions are in Juneau\u2019s Terry Miller Building.<\/p>\n
There is little appetite in the Senate to override any of Walker\u2019s $1.3 billion in vetoes, an act that would increase the state\u2019s deficit. On the opposite side, there is little appetite in the House to consider any revenue increases similar to those passed by the Senate. The House has failed to hold a hearing on any matter since the start of the 29th Legislature\u2019s fifth special session on Monday.<\/p>\n
Due to oil prices\u2019 plunge, the state is expected to earn about $1.5 billion per year. To make ends meet, it needs $4.5 billion per year. <\/p>\n
The state is expected to exhaust its available savings by 2020 unless matters change.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the Senate approved Senate Bill 128, a measure that would allow the state to spend almost $2 billion per year (at present values) on state services from the earnings of the Alaska Permanent Fund. <\/p>\n
The House Finance Committee failed to pass SB 128 in the previous special session, an act that killed the best chance for significant new state revenue. Few minds have changed in the House since then.<\/p>\n
The Alaska Constitution requires 45 votes from the 60-member Legislature to override a gubernatorial veto of a financial item.<\/p>\n
\u201cForty-five is such a big number,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cForty-five is three-quarters of the Legislature, and getting three-quarters of the Legislature to agree on anything is pretty hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
While most members of the House are in favor of overriding at least one veto, they don\u2019t agree on which ones. Democrats have tended to favor the restoration of education and university spending. Republicans have tended to favor the restoration of the Permanent Fund Dividend, which was halved from $2,000 to $1,000 by Walker.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, not all the members of the House are expected to be present on Friday, and an absent member is just as good as a \u201cno\u201d vote when it comes to the final tally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can all do the math,\u201d Meyer said, and even if all 38 of the House members expected to attend voted to override a veto, \u201cthat would still require at least seven from the Senate to support them. That\u2019s pretty tough to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t think you\u2019ve got the votes to pass it, then why pay the expense to do it when you know that you\u2019re going to fail?\u201d Meyer asked.<\/p>\n
Some in the House have responded that it\u2019s worth it to simply try, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get that, but I also get that they\u2019re also running for election,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In this year\u2019s budgeting process, the Senate suggested significant cuts to the state budget. <\/p>\n
To gain the votes of the House majority, the Senate had to restore some funding. To get the votes of the House minority, senators had to reverse themselves still more.<\/p>\n
As Meyer explained, Walker\u2019s vetoes gave senators what they wanted \u2014 bigger cuts to government.<\/p>\n
In a press conference Thursday morning, Walker said he\u2019s done everything he can do to address the state\u2019s fiscal crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cSixty Alaskans hold Alaska\u2019s future in their hands,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really in their hands at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Alaska Legislature is poised to adjourn its fifth special session without taking any action to address the 49th state\u2019s multibillion-dollar deficit. On Thursday, Alaska Senate President Kevin Meyer said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":503,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[216],"class_list":["post-6898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-government"],"yoast_head":"\n