The first session of the 33rd Alaska Legislature adjourned last month, with a lot of issues unresolved. “We were just tied up too much with the issue of the dividend and the budget and how we’re going to pay for things,” said Senate President Gary Stevens after adjournment.
The slow movement on priority bills was tied to the protracted disagreement between the House and Senate majorities over the size of the Permanent Fund dividend, but also questions about other priorities.
Lawmakers will reconvene in January 2024 for the second regular session in the cycle, allowing for hundreds of bills that didn’t pass this year to potentially be revived.
In addition to the unresolved permanent increase in state funding for K-12 public schools, lawmakers next year will continue to debate changes in pension plans for teachers, state and municipal employees.
Returning to a defined-benefits plan, based on salary and years of service, has been a top priority for the bipartisan Senate majority in an effort to solve ongoing challenges in recruitment and retention of workers including teachers and firefighters.
Senate Bill 88 to reform the state’s pension plan made it to the Senate Finance Committee in the final days of the session, when analysts from the state’s actuary indicated it could cost the state far above what was expected. Staffers working on the bill said there may have been an error in how the bill was written or interpreted.
Senate leaders decided in the final days of the session not to vote the bill out of the Finance Committee, with a plan to return next year with more information and a renewed effort to pass the pension reform.
But the Republican-led House majority leadership has remained ambivalent about the change, casting doubt on whether the measure can pass the entire Legislature, even if it receives Senate approval.
Social issues were some of the more divisive measures this past session. Nearly two months after the legislative session began, Gov. Mike Dunleavy introduced one of the most contentious bills of the year: a so-called “parental rights” bill that would limit instruction on gender and sexuality in public schools and limit the rights of transgender students.
The bill was never scheduled for a hearing in the Senate and stalled in the House, after lawmakers on the House Education Committee voted to amend the bill in ways that many said made it untenable.
The governor’s original legislation would have prohibited instruction on gender and sexuality before fourth grade and would have required written parental permission for students to participate in all instruction related to those topics beginning in fourth grade, in an effort that mirrors a Florida measure that opponents called the “don’t say gay” bill.
Dunleavy’s bill would have also barred transgender students from using single-sex facilities like bathrooms and locker rooms according to their preferred gender.
An amendment stripped the bill of most of the language pertaining to gender and sexuality, and changed the parental notification requirement to apply to all classroom content — not just sex education.
The bill advanced from the House Education Committee to the Judiciary Committee three weeks before the end of the session, but it was never scheduled for a hearing. Lawmakers could revive the bill next year, but it remains highly unlikely that the bill will gain any traction in the Senate.
After the Alaska Human Rights Commission quietly dropped its policy last year banning discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, a bill to enshrine anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people in state law gained more traction in the Legislature this year than in the past — but it still failed to pass.
House Bill 99, which would explicitly ban discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in housing and other areas of the law, passed out of two House committees before stalling in the Judiciary Committee.
Judiciary Chair Rep. Sarah Vance, of Homer, refused to schedule the bill for a hearing, and an effort by bill sponsor Anchorage Rep. Jennie Armstrong to force the measure out of Vance’s committee, failed on the House floor in a 22-18 vote.
In the Senate, a companion bill was introduced but never scheduled for a committee vote. The Senate majority indicated at the beginning of the session they would stay clear of social issues.
The House passed a measure supported by the Dunleavy administration that would impose longer sentences on felony fentanyl offenses as a way to combat an overdose crisis in Alaska. Recovery advocates warned that the bill would be counterproductive for drug users. The Senate did not hold a hearing on the bill.
A separate measure introduced by the governor would allocate $58.5 million that the state is set to receive from drug manufacturers found to be partially responsible for the opioid epidemic. Neither legislative chamber passed that bill, which focused on substance abuse treatment.
In fiscal matters, no new tax measures passed either legislative chamber, but the governor has indicated he may call an October special session for lawmakers to debate a fix for Alaska’s structural deficit. Dunleavy did not introduce a state sales tax bill before the end of session, despite saying in April that he planned to do so.
A measure was introduced in the Senate midway through the session to increase taxes on the oil industry as a way to generate substantial new state revenue. The oil industry launched an online campaign strongly opposing the legislation, raising concerns it would discourage industry investment. Senate Bill 114 — which was expected to raise $1.3 billion in its first year — stalled in the Senate and received a frostier reception in the House, but proponents said that the groundwork had been laid for another push next year.
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