As lawmakers fight through fiscal crisis, anti-smoking and ride-hailing bills remain stuck

JUNEAU — Proposals to establish a statewide workplace smoking ban and to allow the ride-hailing company Uber to expand into Alaska are both mired in the state House, even as both measures appear to enjoy bipartisan support.

Senate Bill 14, which would pave the way into Alaska for Uber and other "transportation network companies," and Senate Bill 63, the smoking ban, passed the Republican-led Senate 14-5 and 15-5, respectively, earlier this year.

But as the legislative session drags on past its 90-day deadline, both bills have stalled in the House, which is led by a coalition of 17 Democrats, two independents and three Republicans — a group that's been engaged in an acrimonious public dispute with Senate Republicans over budget reforms.

It took a month for the smoking ban bill to emerge from the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee, co-chaired by Democratic Reps. Zach Fansler of Bethel and Justin Parish of Juneau. The legislation is now in the House Judiciary Committee, whose chair, Anchorage Democratic Rep. Matt Claman, said he doesn't know if a hearing can be scheduled since his aides have returned home.

"We need a fiscal plan and that's the priority," Claman said in an interview — though he acknowledged that the House majority has also held hearings this week on legislation unrelated to the state's budget crisis, like a resolution proclaiming April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The Uber bill, meanwhile, has been sitting in the House Rules Committee for a month, where it's waiting for the chair, Anchorage Republican Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, to send the legislation to the floor for a vote.

LeDoux wouldn't agree to an interview Tuesday. But the sponsor of the House's version of the transportation legislation, Fairbanks Democratic Rep. Adam Wool, acknowledged that the Senate bill is snarled in end-of-session wrangling between the two chambers — even though, he said, it has more than the 21 votes needed to pass.

"It's held up in rules for political reasons," said Wool, a Fairbanks bar owner, describing the machinations as "leadershippy stuff."

In a joking reference to Uber's scandal-prone CEO, Travis Kalanick, Wool added: "It has the votes. It has the support. I don't want to wait too long — I don't want the guy from Uber to get arrested or something."

The delays have confounded advocates who have spent money and time lobbying for the bills.

"It's simple legislation that they should be able to pass. It's just sitting there, dead," said Sam Moore, a legally blind Anchorage accountant who relies on buses and taxis and bought a plane ticket to Juneau to push for the Uber bill. "Why not bring it to an up or down vote?"

Supporters of the smoking ban have been waiting even longer than Moore. Soldotna Republican Sen. Peter Micciche sponsored similar legislation in 2014 and 2015 — once in each of the past two, two-year legislative sessions — only to see both bills die in committee.

Last spring, LeDoux, who then chaired the House Judiciary Committee for what was then a Republican-led majority, singlehandedly stopped the legislation by refusing to hold a hearing on it. She said at the time that smoking bans should be decided by local governments.

Groups supporting the smoking ban this year have flown in more than two dozen volunteers to push for the bill's passage, and the American Cancer Society spent $20,000 on consultants to help with grassroots organizing, according to a disclosure.

The bill's slow progress through committees is especially perplexing given that the House is controlled largely by Democrats, who have been more supportive of that kind of legislation than Republicans.

"Why is this not happening? I think it does not have to do so much with the bill itself or the merits of the bill," said Patty Ginsburg, a lung cancer survivor who was in Juneau on Monday to push for the bill's passage. "If it was only on the merits, it would have gone through because we know there's tremendous support for it."

Anchorage Democratic Rep. Les Gara, a co-sponsor of Micciche's legislation, said the bill has supporters and opponents on both sides of the aisle. But he also said some of its provisions might need reworking, like restrictions on outdoor smoking at places like playgrounds.

"I'm one of the supporters but there are folks who have problems with the bill too," Gara said. "I speak for one person."