Next step for bills with $1,600 PFD, veto reversals and capital budget is Dunleavy’s desk

JUNEAU — The Alaska Legislature has approved legislation fixing the state’s four immediate fiscal problems, and now the final decision is up to Gov. Mike Dunleavy. On Monday, lawmakers passed two pieces of legislation that address this year’s Permanent Fund dividend, the governor’s operating budget vetoes, the capital budget and reverse sweep.

• House Bill 2001 sets this year’s dividend at $1,600 per person and reverses all but $23.29 million of the $444 million in vetoes Dunleavy made to the state’s operating budget in June. The remaining vetoes include $20 million from the University of Alaska and travel reductions to many state agencies and departments.

• Senate Bill 2002 funds the state’s capital budget with money from the Constitutional Budget Reserve and includes the “reverse sweep,” a procedural matter that prevents 54 state savings accounts from being automatically drained into the budget reserve. It also contains permission for the Legislature to spend $250 million from the Constitutional Budget Reserve on as-yet-undefined projects, such as wildfire fighting. The Legislature would be required to specify the spending at a future date.

Legislation is not sent to the governor’s desk immediately when it passes the Legislature. Legislative drafters, lawyers and clerks first examine the bill before transmitting it to the governor. In addition, the leaders of the House and Senate have the final word on when a bill is transmitted, and they can hold on to legislation (though not indefinitely) before sending it to the governor.

It remains unclear when the bills will be transmitted.

“The Senate has every intent of getting the capital budget to the governor’s office as soon as possible,” Senate President Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, said by text message. “The money for roads, and funding for our UA scholars less than a month from classes starting, is too important, and will not be held up.”

A spokesman for Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, was unable to answer questions before the end of the day.

The current special session adjourns Aug. 6. According to the Alaska Constitution, if the Legislature is not in session, the governor has 20 days (Sundays excluded) to sign a bill, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature, once it is transmitted to him.

In a phone call with reporters, the governor said Monday of the capital budget bill and reverse sweep that “we’re glad for that, and we’re glad because ... it helps Alaskans.”

The governor was less positive about the legislation setting the PFD amount and reversing many of his budget vetoes. In the same call, he referred to the bill as a “disappointment because the PFD was now taxed by almost 50% for every man, woman and child.”

The governor has consistently maintained his view that the state’s budget should be balanced by cutting services and not raising taxes or reducing the dividend. In February, he introduced a proposal to do so in one year. He now believes that proposal should be implemented over two years.

Even if the governor were to re-veto all of the budget items he vetoed in June, the state would not have a balanced budget if a full dividend were paid this year.

The governor has said he will propose additional cuts next year.