An Anchorage senator’s fight to overturn Gov. Bill Walker’s $1,000 Permanent Fund Dividend veto is headed to the Alaska Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, filed a notice of appeal to the Supreme Court in his lawsuit against the state.
Wielechowski, joined by former legislators Rick Halford and Clem Tillion, sued earlier this year to overturn Walker’s decision to veto a portion of the Alaska state budget responsible for dividends.
Walker, who said his action was driven by the Legislature’s failure to reduce the state’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit, cut $600 million from the dividend distribution this year.
That reduced each Alaskan’s dividend to $1,022 in 2016. The dividend had been expected to be twice that figure.
Wielechowski, an attorney, is representing himself in the case.
Wielechowski has already lost an attempt to have Walker’s veto overturned in Anchorage Superior Court.
In late November, judge William Morse threw out Wielechowski’s argument that Walker’s veto was illegal.
To the Supreme Court, Wielechowski will attempt to prove that Morse’s ruling was mistaken.
No court date has been set.
