Alaska lawmakers tasked with making budget recommendations
Posted July 8, 2021 12:57 pm.
Last Updated July 8, 2021 1:08 pm.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska lawmakers tasked with making recommendations on a state fiscal plan said they want to come up with proposals that would receive broad support.
The House last month agreed to set up the working group as part of a compromise to get support for effective date provisions that Gov. Mike Dunleavy said were needed for timely implementation of the budget.
The group has eight members, two from each House and Senate caucus.
At the group’s first meeting Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Shelley Hughes said the group’s eventual recommendations will lead to changes if support can be garnered from legislators from around the state, KTOO Public Media reported.
“We want to put forward an actual, workable, realistic package, built around consensus, that will get the needed votes,” the Palmer Republican and group member said. “And that’s no easy thing.”
The state has been grappling with deficits for years, and with lawmakers in 2018 beginning to use oil-wealth fund earnings, traditionally used to pay yearly dividends to residents, to also help pay for government, considerable time has been spent focused on the dividend amount.
The group was tasked with coming up with recommendations aimed at providing “fiscal certainty,” including a balanced budget and resolving the dividend dispute.
The Associated Press
