The federal program had about $900 million for Alaska and Gov. Sarah Palin expressed concerns about accepting all of the money because she feared it could obligate the state to change policy and spend more money in the future.
House and Senate leaders say they spent a lot of energy this session attempting to disprove those claims and as a result worked closely together.
They say dealing with the stimulus was tough under the constraints of the 90-day session.
"It took a long period of time to gather the information, to dig deep enough into the stimulus package to determine whether there were strings attached or not, and certainly to try and make an informed decision based on the facts and certainly not on what we had heard," House Speaker Mike Chenault said.
"If we looked at the number of bills that have passed, that's an indication that we have not had the time to adequately address all of the bills that have come through. And my fear is if it's bad this year, what is it going to be like next year when we come back in January," Senate President Gary Stevens said.
One big question is whether Palin might veto any of their stimulus appropriations. She said throughout the session she wouldn't box herself in by answering that question.
But she did say, "We do feel better about this process, about the open transparency that we had requested lawmakers to engage in."
All branches of government say that it will be a busy time during the interim with complicated legislation to get ready for the next session.
A number of energy bills that were introduced this session, like the Railbelt Energy Cooperative, are still in committee.
Also some of the controversial bills like parental consent for teenage abortions and expanding the Denali Kid Care program did not make it out of committee for a final vote.
Contact Rhonda McBride at rmcbride@ktuu.com
