Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has called the Alaska Legislature back for a second special session to begin at 1 p.m. today, after lawmakers failed to pass an operating budget.
Without a budget, the state government will shut down in two weeks.
The House called it quits for the first special session Thursday night after pushing through an operating budget on short notice. The Republican minority caucus strongly protested.
This morning, the more conservative Senate adjourned without acting on the House’s budget. Democratic Sen. Berta Gardner got the last word in before Republican Senate President Pete Kelly gaveled out.
“It’s unacceptable to shut down without passing a budget. And we have to keep working at it,” Gardner said.
House leaders said negotiations with the Senate were not going well, and that legal deadlines to adopt a budget compelled their unorthodox route to passing a budget.
Jeremy Hsieh is the deputy managing editor of the KTOO newsroom in Juneau. He’s a podcast fiend who’s worked in journalism since high school as a reporter, editor and television producer. He ran Gavel Alaska for 360 North from 2011 to 2016, and is big on experimenting with novel tools and mediums (including the occasional animated gif) to tell stories and demystify the news. Jeremy’s an East Coast transplant who moved to Juneau in 2008.
