With the scheduled end of the 90-day legislative session less than three week away, legislators are questioning how they’ll get done in time.
Tuesday, Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, said he no longer expected to meet a self-imposed deadline of passing a closely watched oil tax reduction bill out of the Senate Finance Committee by Friday.
Work would begin on re-writing the version of Senate Bill 192 by Wednesday, later than expected, he said. That’s set back the process.
“Clearly, if we start writing tomorrow, it will not be done by Friday. It’ll be next week, “ Stedman said.
Gov. Sean Parnell in recent weeks has expressed increasing frustration with the Senate, saying it wasn’t acting quickly enough on his proposed oil tax cut.
“There’s an urgency that’s being missed by senators,” he said.
If the Senate Finance Committee passes Senate Bill 192 next week, it will then have to go to the full Senate. Following Senate passage, it would then go to the House, where will likely be considered by the Resources and Finance Committees.
“If we get the bill with two weeks left, is that going to be enough time?” asked House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, last week.
April 15 is the scheduled end of the 90-day legislative session.
House members have been watching the process in the Senate, but not as closely as they follow House bills he said. Despite the short time remaining, Chenault promised a thorough review.
The House last year passed its own oil tax, a bill senators said gave away $2 billion a year in state revenue with no guarantees of new production. Some of the claims made in the House last year, such as declining jobs on the North Slope and the risk of closure of the trans-Alaska pipeline within 10 years due to low flows were questioned in the Senate’s committee process. That bill stalled in the Senate.
The House has yet to see, let alone question, the Senate’s replacement tax bill.
While the oil tax bill is garnering most of the attention, numerous other bills are also stalled and awaiting action in both houses of the Legislature.
House Minority Leader Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, said the 90-day legislative session does not provide adequate time for adequate review of all the bills before the two Houses.
“There’s a lot of bills that will not get passed this year based on the fact that we don’t have enough time in a 90-day session,” agreed Alan Austerman, R-Kodiak, who is also the House Majority Leader.
• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or at patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.
Comments (5)
Add commentHow much is enough?
I wonder just how many of these proposed bills should even see the light of day? Year after year, session after session, law after law, enough already. End this session on time regardless if every bill gets passed, they probably should not! How about a couple of years of looking at, and disposing of, useless laws and regulations that remain on the books long after their usefullness has past!
What am I missing?
If Parnell and the oil companies say that a tax reduction will lead to increased exploration/production, why don't they put the money where their mouths are?
And GUARANTEE it. You know, make a irrevocable promise, with details. Like x amount of extra production means y amount of tax reduction/credit.
go senate go
I am glad the senate does not easily cave to oil lobbyist.
Sounds good to me!
“There’s a lot of bills that will not get passed this year based on the fact that we don’t have enough time in a 90-day session.”
And why is this a bad thing? We already have enough laws on the books. I'm with alaskabobc on this, most of these bills shouldn't get any legislative time, let alone be added to the already overly populated Statutes!
The $2 billion giveaway
It's basically dead in the water, thank God.
A friendly reminder to the Senate: You don't work for the Governor. He's not your boss. You work for us, the constituents, the people who elected you.
Keep up the good work. Do not cave to Parnell or the oil industry. Maybe tweak the progessivity on ACES, then leave the rest of it alone. No caps.