Day 121: 'An extremely difficult year for all of us.'
Day 121: 'An extremely difficult year for all of us.'
Special session = special session per diem.
Good evening, Alaska! It’s still day 121 of the 2023 legislative session.
In this edition: The Legislature’s headed to overtime after the GOP-led House balked at the budget vote. The Senate finally set the budget free with a handful of changes aimed at picking off just enough of the fracturing House Majority to squeak through by the midnight deadline on the session. We’ll have to wait to see if the changes are enough because the House couldn’t muster the votes to bring up the concurrence vote. Rather than take another black eye, the House leadership called it quits and left it to the governor to call a special session, which he has done. Things continue Thursday.
Current mood: 😴
'An extremely difficult year for all of us.'
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.
In an attempt to force a compromise, the Senate approved a last-minute set of changes to entice the House into voting on the budget that included smaller-than-planned funding for child-care grants, senior home-care grants and oil tax credits. The bill also sought to appease House’s demands for a larger dividend by dedicating part of any unforeseen surplus to an energy rebate that’d be paid in 2024.
But the move came after the Senate took an unusual course of action by holding onto the budget until the final hours of the legislative session rather than passing it and sending it to the House for concurrence, which would set it up for a conference committee where the differences could be hashed out. Senate leadership has defended the position, arguing it allows them maximum flexibility.
The Republican-led House has complained bitterly about the move, arguing it locked them out of the process without meaningful input on the budget. Senators have voiced openness to working on a negotiated deal behind the scenes but have complained that the House hasn’t been straightforward or responsive through much of the negotiations.
A major underlying factor here is the question of just how fractured the House Majority has become this session. It’s a narrow 22-member caucus that includes hardline extreme-right Republicans, centrist Republicans and the moderate rural lawmakers who the Republicans relied on to seize the majority in the first place. The broad range of politics has created a fair bit of tension, particularly among deeply conservative legislators for whom a rigid refusal to compromise is an essential value.
But it’s those schisms the Senate hoped to take advantage of in the vote. While the House’s extreme-right conservatives were all expected to vote against the budget, there was hope that enough legislators between the moderate-by-comparison Republicans and rural lawmakers could join the minority caucus of Democrats and independents to pass the budget.
Even that, though, was a gamble.
“We just don’t know. We have no idea whether they’ll concur or not,” said Senate President Gary Stevens when asked whether he knew the House would approve the bill, later adding that it’s been “An extremely difficult year for all of us.”
And we’ll never know.
Well, at least for tonight.
The House never got to a concurrence vote before the House Majority stumbled over its own cracks, which have grown publicly in recent days as far-right members have been increasingly chafed at not getting their way.
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 from an extreme-right core that’s had few qualms about making the lives of moderate Republicans miserable in recent years.
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 votes.
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.
There would be no vote on the budget. So instead, House Majority Leader Dan Saddler motioned 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.
And many freshman with so so much to learn.