Hello ASEA Member!
Good News! The Alaska Legislature has passed a Capital Budget, established a Permanent Fund dividend amount and restored funding for most of the disasterous Dunleavy vetoes. This legislation now goes to the Governor. After Alaskans like you spoke out by the thousands against his cuts, we hope he sees the error of his previous vetoes.
ASEA encourages you to thank your legislators if they voted in favor of a capital budget and restoring the vetoes.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/thank-legislators-for-saving-alaskan-public-services
You can also write the Governor and ask him to sign these bills into law.
https://aws.state.ak.us/CrmForms/Home/Feedback
In the special session that began July 8, the Alaska Legislature passed two bills resetting the state's budget priorities after the governor vetoed $444 million from the State Operating Budget last month.
HB 2001 addresses Alaska’s manufactured fiscal crisis by restoring vetoed items in the State Operating Budget and establishing a reasonable Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) disbursement.
HB 2001 was introduced containing a formula for $1,600 PFD and was quickly passed by the House along caucus lines, Y21-N10-E9. HB 2001 was transmitted to the Senate was amended in the Senate Finance Committee to include nearly 80% of the appropriations lost in vetoes to the operating budget. The bill was amended further on the Senate floor to account for 95% of the vetoed appropriations along with the $1,600 PFD amount. HB 2001 passed the Senate July 29 on Y17-N1-E2 vote and was returned to the House to face a concurrence vote, passing Y23-N15-E2.
The outcome appears to fall short of veto-proof support for an almost fully restored State Operating Budget coupled with a $1,600 dividend. Without support from additional Republicans in the House Minority, the bill is subject to veto by the governor.
SB 2002 maintains Alaska’s economic vitality and continues essential public investment through appropriations in the State Capital Budget. As introduced, SB 2002 aimed to fund the criminal reform package replacing SB 91, to appropriate for state construction projects releasing federal matching dollars and to perform the reverse sweep to restore accounts for projects and programs that were emptied but not recapitalized in earlier votes.
The bill was amended in the Senate Finance Committee before passing the Senate Y19-N0-E1 on July 20. The following day SB 2002 was transmitted to the House, quickly advanced by the sole committee of referral and was subject to three failed attempts to amend before passing a floor vote. Though SB 2002 did pass, a subsequent vote failed to access the Constitutional Budget Reserve Fund as a means to pay for it. On July 29, after two reconsideration votes in the House, the number of votes in favor of SB 2002 rose to Y32-N6-E2 and the 3/4 supermajority vote to access the CBR was narrowly reached Y31-N7-E2.
As passed, the State Capital Budget is set to fund construction projects that secure more than $1 billion in federal matching funds. The House and Senate support for SB 2002 suggests a 3/4 supermajority veto override vote is possible. As the CBR vote itself required a supermajority to pass, this action cannot be vetoed and the reverse sweep willl take place to recapitalize dozens of accounts funding essential programs across the state
In Solidarity,
Jake Metcalfe
Executive Director
ASEA/AFSCME Local 52