The State operating budget will now face the Senate after earning the support of the Alaska House. The 25-14 vote was recorded last night after hours of debate, with one conservative representative bucking her caucus…
Rep. Reinbold(R-Eagle River): “The budget before us created greater than a $3 billion deficit. There are areas of the budget that we could have dramatically reduced. Some bold sub-committee cuts were unfortunately added back into the budget. This caused me to lose faith in the system.”
As part of the Majority, Rep. Lora Reinbold was expected to vote with her party on procedural votes, like the budget, and Reinbold acknowledged she could face consequences for her dissension.
Rep. Reinbold(R-Eagle River): “We must show discipline to abide by our principles, or we will be disciplining Alaskans by going after higher taxes.”
Minority Democrats tried and failed to restore some funding for Medicaid expansion, early childhood programs and the ferry system.
The bill is $273.8 million smaller than the previous budget. Legislators have been wrestling with the low price of oil which pushed the state into a projected multibillion-dollar deficit.
