It was a loose and eventful week in Juneau. First, the House majority and minority held strange, dueling press conferences. Second, the House Finance Committee tried to introduce a new version of the budget, only to see the whole thing blow up on the record. Third, the Senate decided to take everything out of the education bill except the $1,000 increase to the Base Student Allocation, and then passed it the next day. And fourth, the House majority concurred with the Senate changes to the education bill and then made a loose move on the floor to reduce the full dividend in their budget to a 25/75 dividend, approximately $1,400. 

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Legislature Gets Loose 

This was by far the most eventful, and loose, week in Juneau since session started in January. The House Finance Committee was behind schedule because their budget had a $1.8 billion deficit due to a large dividend and other additions. 

On Tuesday (4/8/2025) the House majority scheduled a press conference to talk about their issues. But the House minority decided to hold one right before them. It was pretty loose. Most of the members of the Republican minority were pushing for a full dividend, which would cost $2.5 billion, or 40% of yearly state revenues. They spoke of few cuts or new revenues. The only one who was honest about the fiscal situation was Representative Will Stapp (R – Fairbanks). 

When the House majority held their press conference after, it was also loose. Speaker Bryce Edgmon (I – Dillingham) said they needed help from the Republican minority. Based on how things have gone the last month, it’s not a surprise the Republicans aren’t lining up to help them. Edgmon also said Governor Mike Dunleavy (R – Alaska) needs to be more engaged, which is absolutely true.      

Then, two days later the House Finance Committee meeting was delayed all afternoon. It became obvious something with the budget was brewing. The committee passed out the operating budget a week before but had failed to transmit it to the clerk’s office. Many majority members were not happy about the idea of a budget nearly $2 billion underwater with no mechanism to cover the deficit. 

Finally, the committee came to the floor in the early evening. They undid the action taken on the bill they moved out a week ago and introduced a whole new version! The Republican minority was pissed because they had just been given a copy. 

Their new draft would have done three things:

• Shift from a statutory PFD to a 25/75 split dividend, approximately $1,400 per person.
• Draw $81 million from the Public School Trust Fund
  • The fund, which is a pre-constitution dedicated fund that can only be used for education, currently has about $845 million. Statute allows for a POMV style draw to support K-12 spending. This action would overdraw the trust fund by about 10% of its assets.
  • The Legislature’s attorney testified at the bill hearing that she was unsure if an overdraw from this fund would pose legal issues.
• Change the surplus PFD language to split between an energy rebate, additional K-12 funding, and a deposit to savings.

Then things got really wild. Representative Stapp called the majority “clowns,” which only increased tensions. It soon became clear that the majority did not have the votes for their new version. It appeared Representative Jeremy Bynum (R – Ketchikan), a member of the minority, may have indicated to them he would support the new version. But if he did, he soon changed his mind. When things started to really go off the rails, the majority abandoned their new version and passed out the version they passed out a week ago! It was something else to watch. 

During the wild finance committee meeting, there was a big rush to move quickly. Representative Andy Josephson (D – Anchorage) said some members had an event to attend. Turns out it was Folk Fest. Pretty unreal. 

It got so bad that it stopped being fun and started being depressing. 

Earlier that day, the Senate Finance Committee met to take up the House Bill 69, the education bill. Instead of incorporating the additions made by the House and Senate Education Committee, they took it all out and left only the $1,000 increase to the Base Student Allocation (BSA)! This was done for a few reasons. One, they are tired of negotiating with an absent governor. Two, they want to turn up the heat on the issue and put moderate Republicans in a no-win spot. Three, they know Dunleavy will veto it, triggering a joint session to take up a veto override. This will really turn up the heat! 

The next day, the full Senate passed the new version of the education bill with only the BSA increase. What was interesting was all three Senate Finance co-chairs voted against the bill. It’s extremely rare for a bill to pass when all the finance co-chairs vote no. Their big concern was how to pay for a $250 million spending increase when there is already a deficit, even if the increase is only $680. 

The education bill went to straight to the House, where after a lot of consternation from Republicans, the House concurred with the Senate version with 21 votes – the bare minimum. It now goes to Dunleavy, where he said in a tweet that he will “immediately” veto it after calling the new version a “joke.” Very loose. 

Dunleavy sent a list of demands to the Legislature in exchange for not vetoing the bill. I was able to obtain a copy, which you can see below. The Legislature rejected everything. 

The next day, the House held floor session. It was delayed to the afternoon so they could wait for the Senate to send over the education bill. They then read the finance committee report for the budget they had again passed the day before. Then, after setting an amendment deadline of 5 pm on Monday, they took up one amendment. This really pissed off the Republicans as three of their members were excused: Representatives Will Stapp, Elexie Moore (R – Wasilla), and Mike Prax (R – North Pole). 

Unlike a bill, an amendment can pass with a majority of members present instead of the majority of the membership. So with three missing, the threshold to pass an amendment dropped to 19 from 21. Several Republicans said they were told by the majority that no amendments would be heard on Friday., There is conflicting reports on that, but it’s fair to say that several of the minority Republicans believed no amendments would be heard. 

The one amendment was to lower the dividend from approximately $3,900 (full statutory amount) to approximately $1,400 (the 25/75 amount). After a lot of debate, and an emotional speech from Representative Nellie Jimmie (D – Tooksok Bay) – who surprisingly voted yes – the amendment passed 20-17. If all three missing Republican members were there and all voted no, it would have failed 20-20. But it’s hard to say how Representative Stapp would have voted. He’s been the most honest Republican in the House minority about the fiscal reality the state is in. But he may have also decided to stick with his caucus on that one to send a message to the majority. 

The Republicans will surely try to rescind action on that amendment on the floor next week, but it’s not likely they will get two majority members to vote for that. So it’s done. But the relationship between the House majority and minority is as worse as its been. So look for the floor session on the budget to be especially loose.  

Other Happenings 

The state finally released the long-awaited salary study that was supposed to be done last July. Consider subscribing to the Alaska Political Report for a full analysis!   

That sure was fast. They have already setup the metal detectors in the Capitol. Sounds like they will start being used on April 21. 

Several high school students were outside the Capitol protesting on Friday. They later came inside. It was part of a general walkout statewide for more education funding. They are lucky the metal detectors were not being used yet. It would have taken much longer to get if they had to go through them.  

This Week’s Loose Unit

This week is simple. This week’s Loose Unit is the entire Alaska Legislature with a special mention for Governor Dunleavy. All must one do is read the above section – Legislature Gets Loose – to get an idea of just how loose things are. Promises of a full dividend, playing politics with education funding, calling the other side clowns, running committees without having the votes to pass a budget bill, rushing to end an important meeting in order to attend Folk Fest, the list goes on. We have far too many Loose Units in charge of our state. 

If you have a nomination for this week’s Loose Unit, or if you have any political news, stories or gossip (or any old pics of politicians or public officials) please email me at jeff@alaskalandmine.com.