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Legislative Update by Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham

April 18th 6:57 pm | Rep. Bryce Edgmon Print this article   Email this article   Create a Shortlink for this article

DAY 91—?? TO GO... April 18th, 2011

Day One of Special Session

I'm sure that most have you have heard that an impasse between the House and the Senate has led to a special session here in Juneau. The principal conflict has been over the Capital Budget, which is still in the Senate's possession. Provisions the Senate introduced into a Committee Substitute for the bill included one that would eliminate funding for more than $400 million in energy projects—including, significantly, the governor's Susitna project—if the governor were to veto a single one of these dozens of projects. The House wants this conditional language removed.

The Senate's primary complaint regards the conference committee negotiations on the Operating Budget. In the Senate's view, the House needs to be more willing to compromise on the changes under discussion.

Because over the past days these conflicts were not resolved, we reached day 90 without the Capital, Operating, or Mental Health Budgets complete.

Given the impasse, both the House and Senate prevailed upon the governor to exercise a never before used provision in the State Constitution to adjourn both houses (thereby ending the 90-day session) and call a special session. That special session began today. It could, according to the Constitution, last 30 days. But I believe there will be a real push in the Capitol to get it done within a week.

The governor included 10 bills in his executive proclamation calling the Legislature into special session. They are:

HB 108—the Operating Budget

HB 109—the Mental Health Appropriations Budget

SB 46—the notorious Capital Budget

SB 76—the Supplemental Appropriations bill

HB104—the governor's Alaska Performance Scholarship bill

SB 42—the governor's AEA/Susitna Hydro bill

HB 106—the bill that extends and improves the Alaska Coastal Management Program

SB 84—Vocational Education Funding bill

HB 24—a bill extending the Regulatory Commission of Alaska

HB126—an omnibus bill extending many Alaskan Boards & Commissions

As of 3 p.m. today, two of these items have been concluded: The House concurred with Senate changes in HB 126 and the Senate concurred with House changes in SB 84. Thus, both bills have passed the Legislature. The House also brought up a concurrence vote on changes made in the Senate to the RCA bill—HB24, but the concurrence failed. That bill will likely now go to a House/Senate conference committee tasked with reaching a compromise.

Of the remaining bills, the Operating and Mental Health bills are already in conference commit-tees. The others—the scholarships, ACMP, Susitna, and Supplemental bills—are still awaiting action in the Senate Finance committee. Until they are moved, there is nothing the House can do but wait. In my view, HB 106 is among the most important items on the list. We need this bill to pass in order to have this important program continue past July 1st this year, and the bill itself includes many significant improvements to the program, including the establishment of a Coastal Policy Board.

I will keep you posted...

Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham

Phone: 907-465-4451 Toll Free: 1-800-898-4451

Fax: 907-465-3445

Email: Rep.Bryce.Edgmon@legis.state.ak.us

 

Rep. Bryce Edgmon can be reached at bristolbaytimes@alaskanewspapers.com, or by phone at 907-348-2449

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