Gov. Mike Dunleavy held a full cabinet meeting at the Aspen Hotel in Soldotna on Tuesday. According to the office of the governor, this is believed to have been the first time the governor of Alaska held a cabinet meeting here locally. The governor’s office viewed this as an opportunity to convene business and explore other parts of the state outside of Juneau and Anchorage.
In addition to regular cabinet business, Gov. Dunleavy discussed the upcoming fourth special session that’s scheduled to begin on Monday, October 4th. He told KSRM:
“I think what the working group did between the Senate and the House as a bipartisan group actually has all of the components for a full fiscal plan that’s sustainable in it. It’s going to be my encouragement to the legislature that they take what this group worked on and then use that as a starting point. We’re going to offer the bills and the vehicles to make sure that this can happen, in other words, some type of resolution to this, but certainly we believe that the people of Alaska deserve nothing less than a dividend that they believe is appropriate especially given the times that we’re going through with the pandemic, economic issues, we’re starting to see inflationary issues, we’re starting to see supply chain issues but the fact that we’re all set about $83 billion in the permanent fund, really this is the time to assist the people of Alaska.”
Dunleavy was asked if multiple special sessions a year are the new normal with state legislature moving forward:
“I hope that this is such an anomaly that once we get this issue settled, I think what you’ll see is a return to what was considered to be normal sessions working on education, working on investment, working on roads. This is has been a large, large, boulder in the middle of the road that’s prevented us from having normal sessions from having a normal year. Remember, it was designed for 90 days. Some states have a legislative session every other year. Some states their legislative sessions are shorter than 90 days. You have to look at special sessions to try to get this resolved. I don’t see this as the norm.”
Gov. Dunleavy, Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer and cabinet members also took a tour of the Agrium plant and the Marathon refinery promoting how the Kenai Peninsula used to be the center of economic development in years past when the LNG plants went online. Dunleavy says he wants to bring the Kenai Peninsula back to the economic engine that it once was.