Senate President Kevin Meyer, an Anchorage Republican, says there has been some progress between the House’s Republican Majority and Democratic Minority. Meyer says Speaker Mike Chenault has been talking to House Minority Leader Chris Tuck about what Democrats need to support drawing from the rainy day fund.
“If their requests are reasonable, I think the Senate will be amenable. If Mike has to give a lot to get Chris and the minority on board, then we could be at this for a while, because it’ll be a hard sell to the Senate.”
Last week, the Republican majorities had floated a plan to circumvent the Democrats using a loophole to the three-quarter rule. That threshold drops down to a majority vote, if funds in other accounts — like the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve — are not available for spending. In a bit of tricky accounting, Republicans had proposed moving money in the earnings reserve account to the corpus of the Permanent Fund, so that money would not count against them when taking a vote on the budget reserve.
But a group of six majority members opposed that plan, out of concern that it could have a negative impact on dividends in years where the stock market was weak.
Sen. Bill Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat, says that fracture has reinvigorated the budget compromise.
“I do think this week something’s going to happen,” says Wielechowski. “I feel like we’re getting close to a resolution on this.”
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