Most members of the House and Senate Majority won’t be returning to Juneau tomorrow as initially planned. Just days after the Governor called a special session on the budget and Medicaid, the houses agreed to recess for two weeks while the budget committee continued to meet.
Speaker of the House Mike Chenault told KSRM there’s no reason to spend taxpayer money bringing everyone back to Juneau just yet…
Speaker Chenault(R-Nikiski): “Right now we don’t have a bill before the body other than the Finance committees. Until they move a bill out of Finance, there’s really no point calling everyone together to have a 15-minute session.”
Instead, Chenault said they’ll call a technical session and likely recess again until the committee is ready to present their findings.
But members of the minority say that’s not good enough. They plan to start holding hearings of their own.
The operating budget met a stalemate during the regular session when the House minority would not approve a dip into the state’s Constitutional Budget Reserve. The CBR money is needed to cover a budget deficit. The minority said they wouldn’t okay the funds unless there was more money for education and pay raises promised to unions. They plan to hold public hearings on the issue starting Thursday.