End of session delayed

JUNEAU — Just when many people thought the legislative session was nearing an end, one more impasse arose: whether the Senate’s version of the Knik Arm bridge financing plan should be approved by the House.

It wasn’t.

Early Thursday morning, the House and Senate named delegates to what’s known as a “free” conference committee to iron out the differences over House Bill 23, sponsored by Rep. Mark Neuman, R-Big Lake.

All this came on the heels of an education bill conference committee essentially ironing out its differences in earnest Wednesday evening, creating hope for imminent adjournment.

After appointing his committee representatives — Sens. Lesil McGuire (R-Anchorage), Peter Micciche (R-Kenai) and Berta Gardner (D-Anchoarge) — Senate President Charlie Huggins, R-Mat-Su, said the bill is worth additional work.

“It’s important for the state,” Huggins said. “The demographic center of the state that has a traffic congestion problem. It probably cost the same to widen the Glenn Highway as it does to do KABATA.

“It’s a common sense thing. We have three different mechanisms for making the funding work. I’m pretty confident it will work out soon. It will be good. It will be good.”

McGuire, Micciche and Gardner joined Reps. Alan Austerman (R-Kodiak), Bill Stoltze (R-Chugiak) and Harriett Drummond (D-Anchorage) for the Knik Arm conference committee.

But it was the education bill — HB278 — that first pushed the Legislature past its 90-day deadline held under statute. The state’s constitution, however, permitted lawmakers to continue.

Under the new education bill draft, the final sum hasn’t changed much, favoring the final version from the Senate: about $300 million over three years. In fact, the dollar amount wasn’t the issue as much as how the districts got funded.

The biggest sticking point was a per-student formula known as the base student allocation, or BSA.

By early evening Wednesday, the BSA would receive money directly; the Senate’s version had no money. The compromise calls for the BSA to rise $150 next year, and $50 in each of the ensuing years.

That’s still less than the House’s version of $185-$58-$58. It’s also significantly less than school districts and some parent groups sought: $400-$125-$125.

Another $50 million a year will be distributed outside the BSA; portions of those funds would go to special projects.

Anchorage Republican Rep. Mike Hawker served as chairman of the committee, since the bill originated in the House. Hawker did not serve on any of the committees that originally vetted the proposed legislation, but in 2008, he ran an education task force during the interim and is familiar with these issues.

“We reached a very good accord here,” Hawker said. “One of my watch words is ‘one always has to be careful to not let the perfect be the enemy of the possible.’ I think what we’ve done here is the possible.”

In addition to funding classroom costs and other programs outside the traditional neighborhood schools, the bill authorizes studies on issues of tenure, salary and benefits likely to be ready by next session.

Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Mat-Su, was one of two Valley lawmakers in the conference committee, bringing with him teaching, administrative and school board experience.

Dunleavy ultimately offered a summary of what the session-long issues first put forth by Gov. Sean Parnell in his state of the state address and his bill.

“There are some questions about sustainability, and I think those questions are going to be looked into by the studies that we accepted,” Dunleavy said. “I think this package maintains what we have but helps us look into the future. I think we are going to really have to roll up our sleeves and take a look at education in general and how we approach it, how we deliver it for all of Alaska. I would like to believe we could continue to maintain what we do well into the future. I just don’t know if we can. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a robust public education system. It just may not look like it does now.”

Freelance reporter Steve Quinn is a veteran Alaska journalist who formerly covered state government for the Associated Press.