A budget committee has put forward a spending plan that could include up to $3,850 in payments to Alaskans, ending tense negotiations that began after the House rejected the Senate’s plan to send Alaskans $5,500.
The conference committee of Alaska House and Senate members tasked with negotiating an agreement on a state spending package meet on Tuesday in Juneau. The committee reached a tentative agreement that is subject to a vote by the full House and Senate.
With the deadline nearing, the committee meeting was not without a hefty dose of drama. Partway through proceedings, committee Chairman Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, instructed staff member Pete Ecklund to barricade the door, trapping all six committee members — in addition to staffers, journalists and others — in the room. The barricade remained in place for several minutes as committee members continued their work.
It wasn’t the first time Stedman resorted to barricading committee members to ensure their work would get done on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Sen. Natasha von Imhof, R-Anchorage, placed a call on the Senate while committee members were holding closed-door negotiations. According to committee member Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, Stedman barricaded a door to keep the sergeant-at-arms from entering the room and disrupting their discussions.
Stedman said the main challenge for the committee was reaching an agreement on the dividend amount. Under their proposal, the budget would include a $2,550 Permanent Fund dividend — half of the 5% draw of the Permanent Fund’s overall value that lawmakers, under an endowment-style management plan, have designated for spending. That is double what the House proposed in the budget they passed last month, but far less than the $4,200 full statutory dividend advanced by the Senate last week.
But without a lasting solution to the Permanent Fund dividend calculations, some warned that similar nail-biter budget negotiations will remain a fixture in the legislative process.
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