Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday called a special session of the Alaska Legislature, limited to his own proposals for education reform and a State Department of Agriculture.
According to a proclamation by the governor, the Legislature will meet for a 30-day special session beginning Aug. 2 to consider an executive order creating an Alaska Department of Agriculture and an education reform bill. The text and details of those documents, per a release from Dunleavy’s office, will not be made available until the first day of the session.
Reporting by the Alaska Beacon says the special session will also force an early vote on the possible override of Dunleavy’s veto of education funding in the state budget. Multiple legislators who voted to override Dunleavy’s veto of the bill providing the education increase are expected to be unable to attend the special session.
Because the margin to override a budget veto is 45 out of 60 lawmakers in favor and only 46 voted to override the veto of the bill in May, a successful override in August may be impossible.
Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, told the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly last month that the Alaska Legislature would be unable to call a special session to override the veto until December because at least two senators were out of the country.
Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, is serving in the National Guard in Poland, Bjorkman said — “he cannot come back on orders of Uncle Sam.” Sen. James Kaufman, R-Anchorage, was in Vietnam at that time.
“There are other legislators, in the summer, blown to the four corners of the map,” Bjorkman said. “I haven’t heard any talk from my colleagues about calling a special session before December.”
On Thursday, Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, wrote on Facebook that Dunleavy had directly asked Republican lawmakers not to attend the special session until its sixth day — specifically to preempt an effort to override the governor’s vetoes that has to come within the first five days.
“I support this strategy,” she wrote. “By delaying our arrival until day six, we give the Legislature space to move past veto drama and onto real progress.”
Lawmakers on Wednesday said the move to call a special session was unforeseen. Speaker of the House Rep. Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, in a statement for the Alaska House Majority Coalition said the governor’s proclamation “came as a complete surprise.”
“There was no prior indication a special session was being considered,” he writes. “We will comment further when we see the details of the Governor’s education proposal and the Department of Agriculture Executive Order.”
Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, spoke more forcefully in a statement for the Alaska Senate Majority. He said the governor’s priorities for both education reform and a department of agriculture were considered in this year’s regular legislative session.
“Today’s announcement from the Governor is disappointing,” Stevens writes. “The legislature addressed both of these issues during the regular session, and rather than respecting that process, the Governor is doubling down on proposals that failed to gain legislative support.”
Stevens notes that the Legislature “took meaningful steps” with bipartisan support for education reform in House Bill 57, which Dunleavy vetoed. He also writes that the governor cited declining state revenues in vetoing education funding, but “now he wants to expand government by creating an entirely new department.”
Dunleavy in his own release says that “a few necessary reforms” can help Alaska’s students and that spinning out the Division of Agriculture from the State Department of Natural Resources “will elevate food security” and grow Alaska’s agricultural industry.
This story was updated Thursday with information about the governor asking Republican lawmakers not to come to the session.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
