As Legislators gear up to reconvene in Juneau on January 19, Representative Kurt Olson says he expects at least one special session during 2016 in order to come to an agreement on a state budget.
Rep. Olson(R-District 30): “I would suspect that we’ll go into special session right at the end of the regular session because we won’t have the budget done. I would be guessing right now but I’d say it will run one to two months.”
2015’s requirement of a 3/4 vote from legislators to access the Constitutional Budget Reserve resulted in an extended regular session along with two special sessions to conclude state budget talks.
The first special session in Juneau cost $440,230, followed shortly thereafter by a special session in Anchorage at a cost of $446,246. The extension costs of the regular session was not tallied since that is technically part of the regular session but the Legislative Affairs Agency showed legislators’ per diem for that period as $105,700.
Looking forward to 2016’s regular session, Representative Olson says that majority vote will likely hold up progress again. He also says there are many who feel the state has not made enough budget cuts.
Rep. Olson(R-District 30): “For example when the governor was running for office, he said he was going to implement a 15 percent across the board cut and I think what we ended up with a little under four percent. So I think it’s not easy and I think that’s what he discovered is it’s not real easy to do but I think we’re going to have to make more serious cuts before we even discuss going into the Corpus of the Permanent Fund.”
Representative Olson says he does not expect the governor’s proposal of a state income tax to go over well either.
Tune in to KSRM 920 AM on Tuesday at 4 pm to hear more from Representative Olson and the upcoming legislative session.