With two weeks left in 2024 legislative session lawmakers scramble to position key bills

There are about two weeks left in the 2024 legislative session in Juneau and legislators are scrambling to get critical bills in a position to pass by the mandatory adjournment May 15.

Those include energy bills related to the pending shortfall in Cook Inlet natural gas; education funding; procedures for approval of new charter schools and a new hot-button issue of how to give certainty to thousands of home-school students affected by a recent state court decision.

What always happens at the end of a legislative session is a log-jam of bills in the finance and rules committees, which are the last two stops before a vote of bills on the floor of the House or Senate. For legislators, negotiating a path through the pileup is always tricky.

There’s always a possibility for a 10-day extension of the session but that requires a super-majority vote, which is difficult to achieve because lawmakers will be tired and anxious to get home.

Meanwhile, most bills that have been introduced will not be pass, and will die on May 15. The priority bills are now mostly in the Finance Committees of the House and Senate or the Rules Committees, where legislation in parked until scheduled for floor votes.

Legislation that clears these hurdles must still be approved by Gov. Mike Dunleavy who can either sign a bill or let it become law without his signature. The governor can also veto legislation, too.

When lawmakers finish and go home the governor and his staff will still be busy reviewing measures that passed and the state budget.

As the Legislature approaches its end priority bills are now apparent, although it’s not known whether they will be approved by May 15.

Education tops the priority list with a number of related issues. Money is number one. The push for a major increase in school funding through an upward adjustment in the Base Student Allocation, or BSA, has been top priority for educator and many lawmakers, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy has resisted this and vetoed a bill earlier that would have done it.

School groups hope this could still happen through other bills and the Legislature is also considering a one-time increase in education funding of $175 million. This happened last year, too, although the governor vetoed half of it.

What the governor is pushing for is a change in state law that allows expanded power for the state Board of Education, a politically-appointed group, to approve and possibly administer charter schools. This change is embodied in some of the legislation now pending.

Local school boards, who now administer charter schools, are resisting this because it takes the responsibility away from elected school boards and gives it to a group appointed by the governor. Since statehood, Alaska has adhered to policies of maximum local control in many matters, particularly education, and this cuts against that, critics say.

The governor is pushing hard for the charter school provision, however. As the session enters its closing days this will be one of the more controversial issues facing legislators.

Added to this volatile mix is the correspondence school matter. A state court judge has ruled that public funds, in this case a state allotment allowed to home-study students, cannot be used to purchase materials or pay tuition for classes in religious or private schools because it violates the state Constitution.

The decision could affect more than 20,000 Alaska students enrolled in correspondence schools who receive state support through the allotments.

A “stay,” or temporary, hold on the decision has been asked for so that it will not disrupt students and families now enrolled in these programs, but whether the stay will be granted, and for how long, is unknown.

Many legislators, however, believe a simple fix to the statutes could be quickly passed that would preserve the bulk of the state correspondence programs while disallowing state money spent for materials or classes in religious or private schools.

However, the governor and some other lawmakers would like to see the state Superior Court decision appealed to Alaska’s supreme court in hopes that the existing system can be upheld, and preserved.

Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate for a “surgical” fix but whether these can pass in the few remaining days of the session is highly uncertain. Meanwhile, state education commissioner Deena Bishop has urged school districts to continue business as usual until the legal issues are settled by the state supreme court.

A number of energy issues are also on the front-burner in Juneau, and some of these are complex. At the forefront are bills in both the House and Senate that would reduce the state royalty on natural gas produced from deposits that are known but not developed, mostly for economic reasons.

This legislation, is passed, could result in new drilling and new gas to help forestall a decline in gas from Cook Inlet expected to begin in 2027. However, there are no guarantees in this, and the wells will be successful.

Southcentral Alaska communities now depend on gas for space heating and most power generation, so the supply of gas is important. The utilities are considering imports of liquefied natural gas to offset the decline but this cannot be done by 2027. Imported gas will also be more expensive compared with gas produced from Cook Inlet.

One or more of these bills are likely to pass by May 15, given the importance of the issue. Once that happens success will depend on the drillers.

A second set of energy bills relate to rules on how power is moved over long-distance transmission systems. These will affect power from new renewable energy projects on the drawing board.

State law vests this responsibility with Regulatory Commission of Alaska, or RCA, and the bills that are pending would make changes in the way the commission regulates power transmission and the fees that are charged.

Without the changes some of the new renewable energy projects may be uneconomic, reducing the ability of wind, solar and hydro power to help offset the decline in natural gas.