State lawmakers overrode two of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s vetoes on Saturday in a pair of dramatic votes.
One of the veto overrides restored more than $50 million in state funding for public schools that Dunleavy cut when signing the budget into law. The other override strengthens the authority of the legislative auditor, who has struggled to get usable data from the state Department of Revenue.
Alaska Public Media’s Eric Stone was in the Capitol for the two votes, and he joined Alaska News Nightly host Casey Grove to recap the session.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Casey Grove: So, Eric, walk us through how things went on Saturday.
Eric Stone: Everybody but Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, a Republican from Wasilla, showed up. And the education funding veto override passed by the narrowest of margins. Lawmakers got exactly the 45 votes they needed to override Dunleavy’s veto of roughly $50 million in funding for public schools. They also overturned Dunleavy’s veto of a bill aimed at boosting transparency when it comes to oil taxes.
And then, most of them left town. The special session isn’t over — at least, not technically, and I can get into that in a minute — but it’s not looking like they’ll do a whole lot more with this special session.
CG: Gov. Dunleavy called the session and set the agenda. But lawmakers essentially came in, overrode his vetoes, and left. Did the decision to call a special session backfire on Dunleavy?
ES: You know, that’s a question on a lot of people’s minds. Senate President Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, had this to say.
“I heard someone on the floor of the House today thank the governor for calling us in. I too want to thank him for calling us in,” Stevens said. “If we had not had this opportunity to override, we would have had to wait until January.”
That was the original plan — they were initially planning the override votes for January because it’s so difficult to get everyone together in the summer.
Dunleavy held a news conference after the vote, where he got that question — was it a mistake to call the session? Here’s what he had to say.
“No, no, it wasn't,” he said. “Because this gives us, this gives the people of Alaska (a chance) to see where people stand on these votes.”
Dunleavy introduced three bills and an executive order that he said he wanted lawmakers to work on during the session. One would expand education tax credits for businesses, another would move forward with a pilot program allowing the state to work with tribes to open new schools, and the last one would make several policy changes. A lot of what’s in that third bill, the policy bill, are ideas that lawmakers have already rejected or say they need more time to study.
And Dunleavy says he hopes those conversations go somewhere. He’s said many times that he’s not satisfied with Alaska’s low test scores, which are among the worst in the nation.
“One half of the coin is now solidified. What's going to happen to the policy side?” Dunleavy said. “What are the ideas to get our kids from 51st up? Or is that just an inconvenience?”
Lawmakers say they plan to look at ideas, including some from the governor, with a task force that’ll begin meeting August 25.
Of course, schools have said that even the full $700-per-student increase in base funding that the Legislature passed this year isn’t enough. They were originally looking for more than twice that much.
I asked the majority whether they planned to prioritize another funding increase next year, and here’s what Anchorage Democratic Sen. Löki Tobin told me.
“We'll continue to have discussions in our policy committees as well as in the task force about, what does an adequately funded public education system look like, and how do we, as the Legislature, ensure that we are providing the accountability metrics and measures that are so needed and necessary to hold our public education system accountable?” Tobin said.
Stevens says some of the governor’s ideas, especially ideas that would go around local school boards, are not likely to get support from the Legislature. But he says it’s worth taking a look at some of the others.
CG: Dunleavy also put out an executive order that would split the Division of Agriculture into its own department. What happened with that?
ES: That’s an interesting one. Dunleavy didn’t introduce a bill, something that lawmakers would need to approve for it to become law. He issued an executive order. And the way that works is, in typical sessions, lawmakers have 60 days to approve or disapprove, or it becomes law automatically.
But Stevens and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, a Dillingham independent, flat-out refused to accept it. They sent Dunleavy a letter saying that an executive order can’t be considered in a special session. They basically said it was invalid, and they wouldn’t vote on it. Part of that’s because they rejected a very similar executive order, by a very narrow margin, earlier this year.
But Dunleavy rejected the rejection. He sent a letter back saying that, if you don’t vote this down by the end of the session, I’ll consider it law.
It seems like this dispute is probably headed for the courts.
CG: Alright. So, you said earlier that the special session is not technically over. But everybody’s left town. What’s going on there?
ES: Well, this is a bit complicated, but I’ll explain a little. Basically, if they were to actually gavel the session out, Dunleavy would have an hour to call them immediately back in. And if they gaveled out again, he could call them back again.
So, for now, they’re staying in session, and they have another floor session scheduled for August 19. But there aren’t any committee hearings or anything on the governor’s bills. It’s kind of a zombie session: not really alive, not really dead.
That has some Republicans crying foul, like Homer Republican Rep. Sarah Vance.
“Our members have done a lot of great work on issues that should be considered. Why wait?” Vance said. “Why wait until next year to help provide the students the quality education that they deserve?”
Members of the bipartisan majority say they want the task force to do its work so they can tackle education issues during the next session in January.
