The Alaska Legislature began its fourth special session of the year on Monday. There are big disagreements between lawmakers on major policies. But it’s also not clear if they can even agree on how frequently to meet over the 30-day session.
The House passed a resolution that would have allowed both chambers to spend more than a week away from Juneau. The resolution would have required both chambers to convene at least once by Oct. 12.
But the Senate did not consider the resolution. Instead, it adjourned until Friday. That means both chambers are now scheduled to hold their next floor session on Friday.
None of the Legislature’s standing committees have announced that they’re meeting this week, so there may not be any work carried out in public on the session’s agenda for at least the next three days.
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More than a quarter of the Legislature — 16 of 60 lawmakers — was absent, including nine of the 20 senators.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has put bills on the agenda to put the permanent fund dividend in the constitution, lower the state’s spending limit and increase revenue. He also asked the Legislature to pass funding for another permanent fund dividend in addition to the $1,114 PFD it passed last session.
RELATED: The final amount for Alaskans’ PFD this year is $1,114
Andrew Kitchenman is the state government and politics reporter for Alaska Public Media and KTOO in Juneau. Reach him at akitchenman@alaskapublic.org.
