JUNEAU -- Gov. Bill Walker sent Alaska's legislators back to work on a budget and other issues in a special session Tuesday, but legislative leaders are pushing to be allowed to work from what would be home for many of them -- meaning Anchorage -- instead of the Capitol.
And they'd like to take some vacation before starting work as well.
"People are probably not in the right frame of mind right now to take on the issue here in Juneau," said House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski. "I shouldn't say 'right frame of mind,' but people are tired," he said.
The Legislature attempted to leave Monday after passing a budget that was more than $3 billion short of balancing and then gaveling out for the 2015 regular legislative session more than a week late. But Walker that night immediately called them back into special session, saying that if the budget wasn't balanced their work wasn't done.
Democrats in the House of Representatives didn't agree to education and other cuts proposed by the Republican-led majority, and the Republicans' failure to allow a vote on expanding the Medicaid health-care program. They refused to approve Chenault's proposal to use money from the $10 billion Constitutional Budget Reserve to balance the budget. That takes a three-quarters vote, meaning Chenault can't balance the budget without support from the 13-member Democratic minority.
"That's a very significant obligation we all have, to make sure we end the session with a funded budget," Walker said.
Republican legislative leaders say they hope Walker will approve their request to take two weeks off, then move to Anchorage. The Capitol is due for extensive seismic and heating renovations this summer, they're arguing.
Senate President Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, said he thought Walker would agree to the move once he heard the facts.
"You know this building is going to be pretty much demolished this summer," Meyer said.
In addition, many Anchorage-based legislative staff returned there after the 90-day legislative session, and files and computers have been moved as well.
"All our staff is gone," Meyer said. "How effective can we be?"
House Majority Leader Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, said the construction would make continuing to meet in Juneau difficult.
"The jackhammers start here Monday," she said.
Delaying construction work could result in not just a month's delay, but the loss of the entire construction season, pushing back the three-year project by a year, Millett said.
Further complicating Juneau as a location is the mid-May beginning of cruise-ship season, when housing gets difficult to come by, she said. But other Juneau buildings, such as the city's Centennial Hall convention center, are also being looked at as legislative venues.
If Walker agrees, the Legislature would probably reconvene in the Anchorage Legislative Information Office, Chenault said.
"The LIO doesn't have 60 offices, but some people could double up," he said.
While legislators spent much of the day Tuesday in closed-door caucus meetings, some official work was done. Walker's new budget proposal, based largely on the budgets adopted Monday by the Legislature, was introduced as a bill as each house had brief floor sessions.
Walker told reporters Monday evening that his budget bill adds about 1.4 percent to the budget adopted Monday, or about $94 million. Walker's new budget adds back some education money.
The House Finance Committee is scheduled to begin hearings on the budget and the changes Wednesday, but Chenault said he was initially skeptical of what Walker had proposed.
"I haven't dug into it, but it appears to be adding to the budget that the Legislature has already passed and that may be a hard sell," Chenault said.
Other changes Walker is proposing include more money for state ferries facing cuts that Walker called "crippling," as well as for Health and Social Services and the University of Alaska system.
Walker's special session call also asks the Legislature to address Medicaid expansion and a bill to encourage schools to implement sexual assault prevention programs called "Erin's Law."
Ordinarily governors cannot add money to a budget, but can only use their veto process to reduce amounts appropriated by the Legislature. But because the Legislature has yet to pass a funded budget, school advocates say they've got another chance to roll back legislative cuts. Parents in Great Alaska Schools joined with other organizations in a demonstration in Anchorage Tuesday demanding just that.
Prior to Walker's special session call, Republicans had hoped to leave town even though there wasn't adequate money in the budget to fully pay for state government.
Walker likened the budgeting failure to the Washington, D.C., gridlock and threatened government shutdowns from Congress.
"We're starting to look like the federal government," Walker said, perhaps the biggest insult that can be leveled in Alaska's Capitol, where one of the favorite curses is "federal overreach."