In a talk with reporters on Tuesday morning, Gov. Bill Walker renewed his determination that Alaska lawmakers should come up with a plan to solve the state’s $2.8 billion deficit this year.
“We need it done,” Walker said. “Maybe things take effect … two or three years down the road … but we need to have a plan in place,” Walker said.
To that end, Walker said he has invited Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham, and Senate President Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks, to the governor’s mansion for a sit-down negotiation session.
Kelly said Tuesday that Senate leaders will accept that invitation, but he feels the Legislature is perfectly capable of negotiating its own problems.
“This is a thing that happens between the House and Senate, and it’ll continue to happen between the House and Senate well after we’re gone,” he said.
Edgmon also said he will accept the governor’s invitation.
The House Majority, led by Edgmon, has introduced a four-part plan to balance the state’s budget by 2020 through budget cuts, the use of the Alaska Permanent Fund, an income tax, and cuts to the state subsidy of oil and gas drilling.
The Senate Majority, led by Kelly, also supports the use of the Permanent Fund (albeit in a slightly different way), but has rejected the idea of an income tax and has mixed feelings about cuts to drilling subsidies. The Senate Majority’s plan calls for it to cut the budget sufficiently in future years to make up the difference in the plans, but it has yet not identified what it will cut.
Talking to reporters Tuesday, Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage and one of the leaders of the coalition House majority, said that “if the Senate thinks that we are going to get out of here with just a (Permanent Fund plan), they’ve got another thing coming.”
Likewise, Walker said Tuesday that he supports a “comprehensive” plan to balance the budget, even if all of the pieces of that plan take a few years to be implemented.
The important thing, he told reporters, is that the Legislature eliminate the cloud of uncertainty about what it might be forced to do in future years. If investors are uncertain about future cuts, they will withhold investment, he argued.
Walker said he will call lawmakers back into session if they fail to reach an agreement before the end of the 121-day regular session.
Tuesday’s address was unusual for Walker this year. Since the Alaska Legislature convened, Walker has stayed in the passenger seat.
Last year, Walker held six press conferences, a speaking tour across the state, and an event in Centennial Hall between January and the end of April. From May 1 through the end of June, he held six more press conferences.
So far this year, Walker has held just three press conferences, and one of those was about a specific piece of legislation. Tuesday’s event was the governor’s second general-purpose briefing of the year.
Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or call 419-7732.
