House Sends a Budget Bill to Senate, Without a PFD Budget Vote Breaks Along Caucus Lines, with Minority Members Calling It Incomplete

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Peter Segall | Juneau Empire From left: House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, and House Finance Committee co-chairs Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome, and Rep. Jennifer Johnston, R-Anchorage, meet with reporters following a vote of the budget on Tuesday.

House sends a budget bill to Senate, without a PFD Budget vote breaks along caucus lines, with minority members calling it incomplete

By Peter Segall Tuesday, March 3, 2020 7:51pm ❙ NEWS STATE & LEGISLATURE

Alaska House of Representatives members passed a budget Tuesday after an hours-long session on the oor, and the budget will now go to the Senate.

The budget included roughly $4.5 billion of state dollars, House Finance Committee Co-Chair Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome, told the body, which was roughly the equivalent of the governor’s proposed budget in December. / “This budget does not fund sending prisoners out of state,” Foster said.

He highlighted some things it does fund, including criminal prosecutors, Village Public Safety Ocers, public radio and the Alaska Marine Highway System.

However, the bill passed by the House did not include an allocation for a Permanent Fund Dividend, leading several representatives to call the bill incomplete.

[Capitol Live: A budget is passed, ammendments are not]

“We decided we want the PFD to be an appropriation,” Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski said. “But we’ve left it out of the appropriating document.”

The bill passed 23-16 with Carpenter and other members of the House Republican minority caucus voting against the bill. Following the vote on the bill itself, was the vote to draw funds from the state’s Constitutional Budget Reserve. That vote requires two-thirds of the House to pass, but received the same 23-16 vote the bill did. That vote wasn’t necessary to send the bill to the Senate, but it will be once the budget comes back to the House for nal passage.

The passage of the bill Tuesday was a fairly calm aair, with only minor disruption in numerous amendments from Rep. David Eastman, R-Wasilla, some of which were ruled out-of-order after being deemed, dilatory, or intended to delay, by House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham.

After the vote House Minority Leader Lance Pruitt, R-Anchorage, called the proceeds collegial.

“There’s concerted eort by both myself and the speaker,” Pruitt told reporters. “The goal is to get out of here and make good policy.”

But while relationships between lawmakers have so far been less fraught than last year, lawmakers speculated that as the second half of the session begins and as discussions surrounding the PFD take center stage tensions will get higher. Meeting with reporters following the session, Edgmon, Foster and Rep. Jennifer Johnston, R-Anchorage, said they expected things to be more dicult going forward. / “I would expect the second half of session to be more contentious than the rst half,” Edgmon said.

• Contact reporter Peter Segall at 523-2228 or [email protected].

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