Both houses of the Alaska Legislature gaveled out shortly after midnight on Thursday after passing a budget as well as a flurry of mergers and votes on other bills.
The budget bill is the result of a compromise between the House and Senate. When the two chambers pass differing versions of a budget, as happened this year, a conference committee is formed of a handful of members from each body. That committee then works to craft a compromise that its members believe will pass both the House and Senate.
As has become common in recent years, the most contentious item in this year’s budget was the amount of the Permanent Fund Dividend. The conference committee version of the bill proposes a $2,550 dividend as well as a $1,300 payment to help Alaskans pay for higher energy costs.
Half of that energy relief payment is to come from the state’s general fund, and half would be drawn from the constitutional budget reserve. Drawing funds from that savings account requires approval from three-quarters of each body of the legislature.
The Senate was first to take up the compromise budget. The bill itself passed by a vote of nineteen-to-one, and the draw from savings received exactly the fifteen votes it needed. Senator Mike Shower, whose district includes the Northern Susitna Valley, voted “yes” on both questions, though he expressed his continued desire for a PFD payment determined according to state statute. Shower says he could not say no to a payment that is relatively close to a statutory PFD at a time of financial need. Shower also says the number of capital projects included in the budget would allow more Alaskans to find work.
The House votes on the budget happened much later, with a little over an hour remaining before the regular session was due to end. The House voted thirty-three-to-seven to approve the budget, with “no” votes coming from Republicans including Representative David Eastman. Eastman calls the budget bill a QUOTE-UNQUOTE “shell game” that lacks transparency.
While he voted against the bill, Eastman voted for drawing funds from savings to send a larger check to Alaskans this fall. The vote to use the constitutional budget reserve failed twenty-nine-to-eleven. The “no” votes in this instance came from Democrats and Independents. A later effort to vote again on the withdrawal also failed.
The end result is a budget that will send eligible Alaskans $3,200 at dividend time. While the legislature has passed a budget, Governor Mike Dunleavy has line-item veto power, so further cuts to anything in the bill are still possible.
