The Alaska Senate passed a bill Friday intended to limit state spending. But not before Democratic senators in the minority caucus staged a protest, leaving the Senate floor.
Senate Bill 196 says the state should limit the portion of state spending on state agencies that the Legislature directly controls each year to $4.1 billion starting next year.
Minority-caucus senators offered 13 amendments. None of them passed. Senate President Pete Kelly, a Fairbanks Republican, ruled three of them out of order, which means senators didn’t debate or vote on them. That’s what sparked the protest.
Senate Minority Leader Berta Gardner of Anchorage said Kelly was wrong that the amendments weren’t relevant to the bill.
“Just because the chair says something is so — and the caucus members are obligated to follow their leader – does not make it so,” she said.
Gardner then walked out, followed by four other Democrats. The amendments would have required the state to draw at least as much from Alaska Permanent Fund earnings for dividends as for state government spending.
After the minority members walked out of the chamber, the measure passed 13 to 0. Bill supporter Natasha von Imhof, a Republican senator from Anchorage, said it would set a precedent for future budgets.
“This bill is a an agreed-upon set of principles which this Legislature and future legislators can utilize when setting an annual budget,” she said.
The bill faces a difficult path in the House. Even if it becomes law, it’s not clear if it would have an effect in the future.
Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski said future lawmakers would ignore the measure.
“I think it’s important to be straight with Alaskans about this bill,” he said. “And the truth is that Alaskans want fiscal restraint, but this statute doesn’t change a thing.”
While Democratic senators said the bill won’t have a long-term effect, they said it was important to protest Kelly’s ruling because it diminished their role.
In the Alaska House, debate continued on the operating budget for a fourth day Friday. The focus was on the size of permanent fund dividends. The House budget debate is scheduled to continue Monday.