Gov. Mike Dunleavy trimmed nearly $90 million from the state budget with line-item vetoes before signing a series of appropriations bills Wednesday afternoon.
Despite the vetoes, the budget bills leave in place many of legislators’ top priorities. That includes nearly $150 million in funding for badly needed school maintenance and construction enabled by higher-than-expected oil prices in the wake of the war with Iran. An investigation by KYUK, ProPublica and NPR spotlighted crumbling schools in many rural Alaska districts last year.
In fact, Dunleavy commended lawmakers’ work in a news release, saying the budget makes “targeted, responsible use of a temporary revenue increase to stabilize school facilities and address energy costs.”
Sen. Bert Stedman, a Sitka Republican and an architect of the state’s capital budget, said he had “many” one-on-one conversations with Dunleavy to underscore the importance of the school maintenance funding. Stedman said he’d like to see a similar investment in maintenance next year.
“I appreciate the governor's recognition of the deferred maintenance needs across the state, and trying to address it, because they just get worse, they don't get better as the clock ticks,” Stedman said by phone. “The only way to get ahead of deferred maintenance is just deal with it head-on.”
At the same time, Stedman said it was “unfortunate” that Dunleavy had vetoed $16 million intended to train workers in preparation for the possible construction of a gas pipeline from the North Slope.
The funding to various technical schools “was spread out around the state, from Fairbanks to Anchorage to Mat-Su, and they're definitely needed,” Stedman said. “We're trying to push forward for a gas line.”
The vetoes also include $20 million in revenue-sharing with local governments through the state’s community assistance program, $6.4 million intended to help recruit child care workers and $11 million to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for caretakers in line with a Department of Health-funded study last year. Dunleavy said the vetoes aimed to promote “long-term fiscal sustainability,” though they amount to a small fraction of the state’s budget.
Rep. Andy Josephson, an Anchorage Democrat who led the House’s consideration of the state operating budget, said he was grateful the governor left in place both the school maintenance funding and an additional $111 million for school operations.
“The vetoes could have been worse, certainly,” Josephson said.
But even so, Josephson said Dunleavy’s veto of the higher Medicaid rates hurts.
“These are caretakers that help elderly and infirm stay in their home, so that they are happier, often enough, and less expensive, vis-a-vis institutional care,” Josephson said. “That's been a focus, and he vetoed that. That's pretty upsetting.”
Most legislators are set to return to Juneau on July 1 for a floor session as a special legislative session continues on gas pipeline legislation.
But Josephson said lawmakers may not have a chance to override Dunleavy’s vetoes. Even if they could muster the three-quarters supermajority needed, Josephson said the timing of Dunleavy’s vetoes means the constitutional clock on override votes might run out before legislators get back to the Capitol.
The Alaska Constitution provides that once lawmakers receive a veto message after the second regular session, they must convene in joint session “no later than the fifth day of a special session of that legislature, if one is called.”
