Lawmakers in Juneau set up a conference committee this week to hammer out a final draft of a budget bill that would fund hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of construction projects across the state. The bill also includes tens of millions for disaster relief and wildfire suppression and would refill a scholarship fund lawmakers used to bridge a budget gap last year.
Industry groups told lawmakers earlier this year that the bill was necessary to ensure they could hire staff and stage materials in advance of this summer’s construction season.
The $373 million supplemental budget bill stalled in the House last week after minority Republicans opposed a draw from savings, which requires a three-quarters supermajority. They argued a war-driven increase in oil prices means the state will have the money to pay for the bill without a savings draw.
The Democrat-heavy bipartisan House majority said that passing the bill without a savings draw in a volatile time for oil prices was risky.
Anchorage Democratic Rep. Andy Josephson, one of two committee members representing the bipartisan House majority, says he expects lawmakers to rework the bill so that the state only uses savings if necessary.
“What might flow first is general fund dollars from an increase in oil severance taxes, and then, second, failing that, (a savings) draw,” he said. “That is probably what you are going to see. There’s nothing terribly radical about it.”
It’s also possible the bill could expand to include items cut from an earlier version. That’s up for negotiation, Josephson said. Those items are mostly state agency expenses that exceeded what lawmakers budgeted for last year.
Fairbanks Republican Rep. Will Stapp, representing the House minority on the committee, said talks are just getting started — but for now, he said he was still skeptical of any draw from savings.
“Every day that we go through this process, it is more highly likely that we do not need to authorize a draw from the state's savings accounts to pay these expenditures,” he said. “And if we do, I mean, we also have more time in session to revisit that.”
The bill as a whole could pass and head to the governor’s desk with a simple majority vote, even if the supermajority vote to spend from savings fails. Stapp said he was frustrated that hadn’t happened already.
Josephson said he expected the bill to go to the House and Senate floors for a final vote on Monday or Tuesday.
