Alaska state budget and other bills head to Gov. Mike Dunleavy
The three pieces of legislation that make up Alaska's annual state budget are on Gov. Mike Dunleavy's desk.
According to legislative records, the state's operating, capital and mental health budgets were transmitted to the governor on Tuesday, giving the governor until June 19 to veto the bills or sign them into law.
The governor has the ability to use a line item veto to reduce or eliminate specific items within the budget, and Dunleavy has previously indicated that he may reduce funding for public schools below the amount prescribed by a formula in state law.
State legislators voted to raise that formula in the session's last days, overriding Dunleavy's decision to veto the bill containing a $700 increase to the base student allocation, the core of the state's school funding formula.
If Dunleavy reduces education funding below what's called for by the formula, it would be unprecedented and akin to former Gov. Bill Walker's decision in 2016 to veto part of the Permanent Fund dividend: Since the education funding formula was created, every governor has followed the law.
Two policy bills also were transmitted to the governor on Tuesday.
The first, House Bill 75, cleans up some state laws pertaining to the Permanent Fund dividend and was uncontroversial in the House and Senate. The second, Senate Bill 183, would require the executive branch to deliver reports in the form requested by the Alaska Legislature's auditor.
Under the Alaska Constitution, the Alaska Legislature has audit authority over the executive branch, but since 2019, lawmakers have been unable to analyze the performance of the section of the Alaska Department of Revenue that audits tax settlements with large oil companies.
Lawmakers say the Department of Revenue has switched policies and no longer provides a report that once allowed them to examine the section's work.
Members of the department testified that they have turned over raw data, but the legislative auditor testified that her department lacks the information and capability to turn that data into actionable information on the state's oil revenue.
The bill was transmitted to the governor's office with a letter from the Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham and Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, asking Dunleavy not to veto it. 'This letter accompanies the bill not as a routine legislative communication, but as a reflection of the extraordinary nature of the circumstances we face,' it read. 'The ongoing obstructions by the DOR must not be allowed to become a precedent for future administrations. We must reinforce, not erode, the norms of oversight and accountability that are vital to Alaska's republican form of government.'
If Dunleavy does veto a bill, the Alaska Legislature is not expected to consider an override until January, when lawmakers reconvene in regular session.
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