JUNEAU — Alaska lawmakers overrode two of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s vetoes in a joint session Saturday, marking the latest twist in a rift between legislators and the governor.
Saturday’s votes came after lawmakers in May overrode Dunleavy’s veto of a bill that significantly increased the state’s education funding formula for the first time since 2017. Dunleavy then responded by taking the unprecedented step of vetoing education funding directly from the budget.
Dunleavy then called a special session in summer, and asked Republican minority members not to attend the first days of the session in an effort to thwart majority members’ attempts to override his vetoes.
Despite the governor’s efforts, lawmakers on Saturday mustered the 45 votes needed to restore roughly $50 million in education funding that he had vetoed, with 10 Republican minority members in the House and Senate joining all 35 members of the bipartisan majorities in voting to restore the funding.
Lawmakers also overrode Dunleavy’s veto of a bill meant to ensure the state is collecting the oil and gas taxes it is owed, after leaders of the House and Senate said the Dunleavy administration may be leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in oil and gas tax revenue on the table.
House Speaker Bryce Edgmon and Senate President Gary Stevens had identified those two vetoes as their top priorities during the special session. Following the successful veto override votes, lawmakers ended the joint session, precluding votes on Saturday to override some of Dunleavy’s other recent vetoes, including a veto of millions of dollars in school maintenance and construction funding.
The veto overrides came on the first day of a special session Dunleavy had called for lawmakers to address his education policy priorities and consider his order creating a state agriculture department.
Legislative leaders said they did not plan to adopt Dunleavy’s policy priorities during the special session, either because they had already considered and rejected them, or because the proposals required more consideration than was possible during a special session.
The joint session Saturday afternoon was brief and included no debate or discussion.
Lawmakers first voted 43-16 to override Dunleavy’s veto of a bill meant to clarify the role of the legislative auditor. Overriding the governor required support from 40 lawmakers.
Lawmakers had adopted that bill after members of the Dunleavy administration declined to provide information on oil and gas tax audits to the legislative auditor, raising concerns among House and Senate leaders that the Department of Revenue was not collecting the full tax amounts owed to the state as required by law.
Edgmon and Stevens have said that the state could be losing hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. Dunleavy has called their concerns baseless.
The Legislature then voted 45-14 to override Dunleavy’s education funding veto, just hitting the 45-vote threshold needed to override a budget veto.
From the hallway outside the House chamber, cheers from education funding advocates could be heard after votes were cast. The veto override resolves months of apprehension from school districts across the state, who said that Dunleavy’s veto — which came weeks after districts submitted their budgets for the coming school year — left them uncertain about how to proceed.
The joint session had been delayed from 10 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. after Rep. Robyn Burke, an Utqiagvik Democrat, missed her morning flight to Juneau from Anchorage. Her arrival Saturday afternoon meant that only one out of 60 lawmakers — Republican Sen. Mike Shower of Wasilla — was missing from the Capitol.
Dunleavy initially asked minority Republicans not to attend the first few days of the session to thwart majority members’ efforts to override his vetoes. But Dunleavy later said he would be in Juneau during the beginning of the session and encouraged all lawmakers to attend.
Edgmon and Stevens said in a Saturday letter that Dunleavy’s executive order creating an agriculture department was not in line with the state constitution because lawmakers had already rejected a similar order earlier this year, among other reasons.
Edgmon and Stevens wrote that “introduction of an executive order during a special session is unprecedented and inconsistent” with the state constitution. They also said that “reintroduction of a previously rejected executive order in the same legislative session is contrary to the rules of procedure adopted by the Legislature.”
Lawmakers have said they plan to consider creating an agriculture department during the regular session that begins in January.
Stevens and Edgmon also said they planned to consider some of the education policies proposed by Dunleavy — including one to establish more tribally run schools — during the regular session.
They said they wanted to provide time for an education task force created by the Legislature to meet and discuss some of the proposed policies before voting on them. The task force is set to begin meeting later this month.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
