Alaska Gov. Dunleavy asks some lawmakers to stay away from special session he called
In a meeting with Republican members of the Alaska House of Representatives on Wednesday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy had what he called an 'unorthodox' request.
He asked that the 19 members of the House's Republican minority caucus stay away from the first five days of a special legislative session he called for Aug. 2 in Juneau.
Under the Alaska Constitution, the Legislature must vote to override or sustain a governor's vetoes in the first regular or special session following the vetoes. If those Republicans are absent, it increases the odds that his vetoes will be sustained.
An absence is as good as a 'no' vote when it comes to getting the 45 votes needed to override a veto of line items in a budget bill or the 40 votes needed to override a veto of a policy bill.
In May, lawmakers voted 46-14 to override Dunleavy's veto of a policy bill that permanently increases the state's public-school funding formula. Eight of the 19 House minority members voted for the override.
Now, they're being asked whether to override the governor's decision to only partially fund that formula.
The governor's opponents will have a difficult task. Some lawmakers, including Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, are expected to be unavailable for the special session. Dunbar has been deployed with the National Guard in Poland.
Others may have family commitments that are obstacles to attending. If minority-caucus legislators heed the governor's request and avoid the special session, they will be largely immune to last-minute lobbying by their colleagues or members of the public.
'If you want the veto override to fail, when we're talking about less than $50 million here on a multibillion-dollar budget, I guess you pull out every stop, and this is a stop that I've not seen pulled out by any governor,' said Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham and a supporter of the override.
Reporters were not invited to the meeting between the governor and the House minority, but Jeff Turner, the governor's communications director, confirmed the details, first reported by KTUU-TV.
'Governor Dunleavy asked house minority members to not show up for the first five days of session because like any governor, he does not want his vetoes overturned,' he said by email.
Dunleavy has designated education policy and the creation of a Department of Agriculture as the subjects of the special session. Turner said the governor planned to introduce an education bill for lawmakers to consider during the session.
'Arriving on the sixth day also means legislators begin the session with a clean slate for conversations on public education reform policies. The Governor is also willing to reinstate the $200 BSA increase, if he and lawmakers can reach an agreement on the education bill he will introduce next month,' Turner said.
House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, did not return a call seeking comment, but other members of the minority spoke freely about the governor's request.
'I will use the governor's exact word: Unorthodox. It was definitely an unorthodox request that took me by surprise,' said Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna.
While the governor's official special session proclamation lists education and a proposed Alaska Department of Agriculture on its agenda, 'he was very clear that a big portion of the strategy for him was, he did not want to be overridden on anything: bills, budget, all of it.'
Ruffridge voted in favor of the prior override and indicated that he's willing to vote the same way in a special session.
'I've taken the approach sort of since day one, that if I vote yes on something, that my yes means something, I know that probably doesn't always align with the political winds that might blow, but I think that's something that my constituents at least respect,' he said.
Ruffridge said he absolutely intends to show up at the special session.
'If a special session is called, I think all representatives and senators have an obligation to attempt to be there, if at all possible,' Ruffridge said. 'I think that's part of what we signed up for when we signed up to do the job. And I mean, if you're not going to show up, I think essentially, you're just afraid of taking hard votes at that point.'
Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, has a different perspective.
'I think that's fine,' she said of the governor's request. 'It costs a lot of money. It's $300 per diem per day. You have to pay for flights and hotels. I think it's a good idea. Those who do want to continue to override, they could go ahead and go down there, and those of us who don't, it's an automatic no vote for us when we don't go there to vote.'
'My job is to make sure we save as much money as possible,' she said. 'And again, if we're not in Juneau, it's an automatic no vote. If you show up in Juneau, then I believe those individuals are going to be voting yes or wasting taxpayer dime.'
Jeremy Bynum, the Republican representative from Ketchikan, said he intends to show up in Juneau on Aug. 2, even though it means missing Ketchikan's largest annual celebration, the blueberry festival.
He's interested in attending the special session because he hopes that legislators will take up education policy, even though he doubts that will happen.
The multipartisan House majority caucus controls the legislative agenda, and it isn't clear that there is sufficient common ground between the majority and the governor to enable progress.
Rep. DeLena Johnson, R-Palmer, said she's still considering her options and is undecided about whether to travel to Juneau.
Before the House minority's meeting with the governor, Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, said he doesn't see the governor's call for a special session as significantly different from legislative committees' attempts to advance or derail legislation by using legislative procedures or schedules. He pointed to the way that the Senate Finance Committee has used take-it-or-leave-it tactics with regard to the state budget.
Rep. Elexie Moore of Wasilla said she's likely to attend in order to vote against an override and to sustain the governor's veto.
Earlier this year, she was absent from the Capitol on a day that unexpectedly brought a key vote on the Permanent Fund dividend.
She was dragged on social media for three weeks afterward, she said by phone.
People expect their legislators to be in the Capitol, she said, and most people aren't able to follow the maneuvering that might explain an absence.
'I think that's the perspective of somebody who doesn't understand what it means not to go,' Allard said when told about Moore's thinking. '(Not attending the session) means that you're a no vote. But if she wants to go and spend, you know, $5,000 to $10,000 in taxpayer money, that's fine. I understand she was dragged on social media, but those were some bad decisions that were made — not necessarily by her — but on information about what she was doing. But I would recommend that she stay with the caucus and don't go down there.'
'I think it's a good idea,' said Rep. Mike Prax, R-North Pole, about the governor's request.
Prax supports the governor's position and said he believes the special session is a good idea, because it settles the school funding issue early. Without a special session, lawmakers would have to wait until January to decide whether to override or sustain the governor's decisions.
The Fairbanks North Star Borough school board voted in June to finalize a budget that expects lawmakers to override the governor.
If an override fails, Prax said, it's better that it fails early, so the district can change its budget before school begins.
While members of the House and Senate majority caucuses have indicated that they intend to take up only the veto overrides during the special session, Prax said he hopes lawmakers will stay and consider education policy.
While lawmakers have convened an education task force to discuss future changes, he doubts the effectiveness of that group, given the Legislature's failure to adopt the recommendations of a prior fiscal policy working group. The task force deadline to make recommendations is January 2027, after the next election.
'I am not at all optimistic that there's even any intention, frankly, of the task force coming up with something,' he said.
Edgmon, the House speaker, said that his recommendation 'to any legislator, is to show up to Juneau, get their work done and make the tough vote whether they are a yea or a nay.'
Legislative rules allow any lawmaker to issue a 'call on the House' that compels legislators to attend. Edgmon said that might be deemed dilatory and out of order in this case.
In the end, will absences even matter? Lawmakers who stay away are likely to be those most likely to support the governor.
'That could be the case for sure,' Edgmon said, 'and it'll be the voters in their districts that will judge whether or not they're doing the right thing.'
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