The House adjourned this evening after a 12-hour day of hearing budget amendments. They spent all day yesterday hearing budget amendments as well. They had gotten through all 93 amendments today (several were withdrawn), but then Representative Dan Ortiz (I – Ketchikan) re-introduced an amendment he had not offered yesterday.

Ortiz’ amendment would pay the $174 million in added education funding out of the general fund, but more importantly, would pay half of the dividend out of the Permanent Fund earnings reserve and the other half out of the Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR) – which requires a 3/4 vote, or 30 votes in the House. Representative Will Stapp (R – Fairbanks) moved to table the amendment, but that failed 19-21.

The vote to table was very strange. Because the majority does not have any rules on how members have to vote on procedural items, weird things can happen. Representatives Ben Carpenter (R – Nikiski), Kevin McCabe (R – Big Lake), Jesse Sumner (R – Wasilla), and Justin Ruffridge (R – Soldotna), joined with the entire minority and Representative David Eastman (R – Wasilla) to not table the amendment.

After a long at ease, the House then voted 23-17 to adjourn until tomorrow morning. House leadership seems concerned that the vote on Ortiz’ amendment could be too close for comfort. If it were to pass, it would create chaos in the House majority and could effect the final vote on the actual budget. This is the problem with having no rules on procedural votes or the final budget vote. Anything can happen. A binding caucus creates stability and predictability. The current House majority has neither.

Toward the end of the night, Eastman had a myriad of amendments that were mostly intent language. Representative Bryce Edgmon (I – Dillingham) moved to consolidate them all, and then table them. But Eastman kept refusing to vote, which prevented the vote from being closed. Eventually, Edgmon pulled his motion and they went through them one by one.

Earlier in the day, Representative Frank Tomaszewski (R – Fairbanks) had an amendment to overdraw the earnings reserve by some $440 million to pay out what he described as a tax-free energy rebate. That was defeated. Representative Jamie Allard (R – Eagle River) had an amendment to restore $36,000 for a part time position to investigate election fraud. That was also defeated. It’s rare for majority members to introduce budget amendments that end up getting voted down. Normally, all of this happens in committee.

Because the House did not get through their full calendar, the budget bill will remain in second reading tomorrow. This leaves Ortiz’ dividend amendment in play. If they would have got to the other bill, the Mental Health budget, and then adjourned, the bill would be in third reading tomorrow. A bill can still be amended in second reading while in third it can only be debated and then voted on.

Several members plan to leave on Thursday to go home for Easter. If they get through this amendment, and potentially others that were not offered or efforts to rescind action on previous amendments, they would be able to move from second reading to third reading the same day with 30 votes. This would require the majority, with just 23 members, to rely on minority votes. That would probably happen as several minority members also want to go home for Easter. If not, they would not be able to go into third reading until Thursday.

If they do move to third reading tomorrow, look for there to be a lot of debate on the budget itself. Once they pass the budget, which is not guaranteed because the majority has no rules compelling members to vote for the final budget, they will still need to get 30 votes to drawn money from the CBR for the reverse sweep and to cover the deficit. If that fails, it can still be worked out in the conference committee, but it makes things more uncertain. And if the Ortiz amendment ends up passing, all bets are off.

Stay tuned for tomorrow. Make sure to follow the Alaska Landmine on Twitter for live updates.