The Alaska legislature’s regular session ends at midnight on Sunday and Speaker of the House Mike Chenault says he thinks lawmakers still have time to get everything done without a special session.
Spkr. Chenault (R-Nikiski): “Pieces could come together, I believe, to get us out of here but at the rate we’re going I would not be at all surprised if we have a special session. We’re in economic times that we haven’t been in, a close to $4 billion spending deficit that we’ve tried to address through budget reductions. We’ve also put almost every revenue measure that the governor’s asked for we’ve at least heard those bills in committees and we’re poised to try to put together a comprehensive package.”
Governor Bill Walker has said that if the legislature fails to provide a sustainable fiscal plan for Alaska that includes some of his proposals, he will call a special session.
As for a special session regarding the Alaska LNG project like last year, Chenault says he does not think there will be one since there is a natural pause between the Pre- Front End Engineering phase and the FEED phase.
Spkr. Chenault (R-Nikiski): “The plan as far as I’m aware is still moving forward. They will get to a Pre-FEED decision, and probably step-back, it was designed in the bill to step back, re-evaluate the project, look at the cost and let each of the partners, Conoco, BP, Exxon, and Alaskans (the State of Alaska) re-evaluate their positions