June 20 Update
The Alaska Legislature adjourned the special session on June 19. It passed an operating and capital budget, but did not advance other elements of Gov. Bill Walker’s longer-term plan for stabilizing the state’s finances. Walker called the legislature back for a fifth special session to begin July 11. He wants the legislature to reconsider legislation to restructure the Permanent Fund, create new taxes and revisit oil and gas tax credits.
May 19 Update
The Alaska Legislature failed to pass a budget and other legislation aimed at resolving a multibillion dollar budget deficit by the end of its 121st day in regular session, Wednesday, May 18, the constitutional limit. Gov. Bill Walker has called a special session in Juneau to begin Monday, May 23.
Update
The Alaska Legislature failed to adjourn on Sunday, April 17, the 90th day of its regular session. Both the House and Senate held marathon floor sessions until about 3 a.m., passing dozens of pieces of legislation.
However, major items are still outstanding, including the operating budget, the capital budget, a Permanent Fund plan, new taxes and justice system reforms.
Lawmakers’ work this session continues.
As the statutory time limit for the Alaska Legislature to get its work done approaches each year, legislative action ramps up, work days stretch late into the night, and the Capitol is abuzz.
The 29th Alaska Legislature’s second regular session is supposed to end Sunday, April 17. Follow live streams from the Capitol, breaking news and other legislative developments here.
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News
[display-posts image_size=”medium” posts_per_page=”120″ category=”state government” date_query_before=”2016-06-30″ date_query_after=”2016-04-15″ include_date=”false” include_excerpt=”true” offset=”0″ wrapper=”div” wrapper_class=”row blog-recent columns-4″ ignore_sticky_posts=”false” include_author=”true”]Are lawmakers really limited to 90 days?
Alaska voters narrowly established the 90-day limit in state law through a ballot question in 2006 — 50.8 percent to 49.2 percent. The first 90-day session was in 2007. Since then, lawmakers have immediately called themselves back into special session, been immediately called back by the governor, or simply continued to meet beyond midnight of the 90th day seven out of nine years.
There haven’t been any concrete consequences. Legislative lawyers have said the state constitution‘s 121-day limit trumps the statutory limit. There haven’t been any legal challenges to actions lawmakers have taken beyond the 90th day.