With two weeks to adjournment, legislators juggle priorities

With about two weeks to go until the Legislature’s required 120th-day adjournment, what is the 2023 session in Juneau likely to have accomplished?

In terms of new ideas and new programs, probably not a lot, although a lot of balls are still in the air and things can happen fast in Juneau in the closing days of a session.

Keep in mind that this is the first session of a two-year Legislature, and for what doesn’t get across the finish line by May 17, the adjournment deadline, there’s 2024.

Even if they don’t pass many important bills will have advanced enough to be positioned well for next year.

One problem is that there isn’t much money for new programs this year and the Legislature’s main accomplishment may be simply keeping the ship of state afloat with funding stable for agencies and key institutions like the University of Alaska.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy offered a proposed Fiscal Year 2024 budget that basically keeps things stable, and the state operating budget approved by the House and likely to be approved by the Senate basically endorse the governor’s steady-state approach.

Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anch., the House Minority Leader, said the Legislature, and the public, seem to now accept that the budget it about where it has to be in providing essential services the public demands. The days when people pushed big budget cuts are behind us, Shrage said.xs

Still, the amount of the Permanent Fund Dividend, or PFD, is once again an issue and a detraction for legislators as they close out the 2023 session.

The question this year is whether there will be a large dividend, such as one for about $2,700 proposed by the governor and the House, which is controlled by Republicans, that would create a $600 million deficit in the FY 2024 budget.

The Senate, controlled by a Republican-Democrat coalition, has an alternate plan for a smaller PFD of about $1,300 that would leave no deficit. New revenues are also on the table, in the form of higher taxes on the oil and gas industry. The Senate is now working on SB 114, which would increase taxes on oil producers and provide enough new income to cover the deficit and allow a higher PFD.

Even in a year of tight revenues there is still room for new ideas. The governor’s carbon legislation is one example of innovative legislation that has potential to make Alaska a more attractive place for industry to invest and also yield new revenue.

However, the bills, HB 49 and HB 50 in the House and SB 48 and SB 49 in the Senate,

are complex and decisions are having to be made when legislators are distracted by the rush of business toward the May 17 deadline.

However, another new idea that has advanced steadily did pass the Legislature Monday, May 1. SB 87 is a bill authorizing a program to inspect and grade lumber made here from Alaska-harvested wood so that it can be used in residential building. Currently, only lumber shipped in from out-of-state can be used because there is no program to grade local lumber for quality, although Alaska spruce is every bit as sturdy as Douglas fir from the Pacific Northwest.

SB 87 was sponsored by Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Kenai, but an identical House version was sponsored by Rep. Jesse Sumner, R-Wasilla, who guided the legislation through the state House.

Another new idea that could pass by May 17 is Senate Bill 77, by Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anch., which would allow municipalities to offer new incentives for the rehabilitation of aged and deteriorated buildings. The bill is in the House Finance Committee after having passed the Senate earlier.

There’s also the “Green Bank,” a governor’s bill, HB 154 and SB 125, that sets up a new financing program for home and building owners to do energy conservation retrofits and to install renewable energy systems like rooftop solar.

This new program would be operated by the state Alaska Housing Finance Corp., which has a long history in home financing. The terms offered would likely be more attractive than available through conventional financing through commercial banks. This year the new entity would be eligible for big energy conservation grants through the federal government, which would give it seed money.

The green bank was also offered by the governor last year but didn’t make it across the threshold to final passage and had to be re-introduced this year.

Another bill before the Legislature last year and back this year is an idea for utilities to have a required percentage of renewable energy like hydro, wind and solar among their sources of energy supply in addition to fossil fuels like natural gas or oil.

The governor sponsored this in 2022 but Rep. Jesse Sumner, R-Wasilla, is sponsor in 2023 of the House version, HB 121, now in the House Energy Committee. The Senate bill, SB 101, sponsored by Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anch., is in the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee.

Many states have these “renewable energy portfolio” laws and Alaska electric utilities, while increasing their share of renewable power on their own, are wary of being locked into mandates that may be difficult to achieve.

One idea that may ease the concerns of utilities is to allow other forms of clean energy, such as power generate by new-technology micro-reactors, to be allowed to be part of a carbon-free “clean energy” standard.

This bill may not make it into law this year but would be primed for 2023.

Although legislators may not be prime sponsors of bills their positions as chairs or vice chairs of key committees help inform their colleagues and help to guide bills through.

An example is Rep. George Rauscher’s role, as chair of the House special energy committee, in helping legislators be up to date on investments needed to upgrade the “railbelt” electrical transmission system so that new renewable energy, particularly from a large project like Susitna hydro, can be moved to communities that need it.