The Legislative Council meets Thursday to decide what to do about the Anchorage Legislative Information Office. A judge recently ruled the state lease for the building is illegal, because the state didn’t open it up to competitive bidding.
The council could decide tonight whether to buy the building, or to move the office to a smaller space in the state-owned Atwood Building.
The LIO owners have offered to sell the building to the state for 37 million dollars. A consulting group says 29 million dollars would be similar to the cost of the Atwood Building space, while 35 and a half million would be competitive for the larger LIO space.
Council chairman Kodiak Republican Senator Gary Stevens says the state will pay through July based on the terms of the invalidated lease.
The council will meet in a private, executive session. It’s not clear whether it will make a final decision tonight.
Andrew Kitchenman is the state government and politics reporter for Alaska Public Media and KTOO in Juneau. Reach him at akitchenman@alaskapublic.org.
