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No Decision on Possible Second Special Session

May 09, 2011|By Ted Land | Channel 2 News

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Week 4 of the legislative special session started like any other lawmakers have seen over the past 22 days.

There's been virtually no progress on the capital budget negotiations which have kept the House and Senate in Juneau.

KTUU pulled its crew out of the capital a few weeks ago and as one legislative insider told me today, "It's the same as when you left." 

Senate leaders are standing firm on their position that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of energy projects should be lumped together in an all-or-nothing package. The House thinks that violates the governor's authority to veto individual items.

House leaders have been scheduling the capital budget in the House Finance committee, in anticipation of referral, but on Monday morning, the calendar only had a single event – A Senate Finance Committee meeting that was postponed.

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The discussion now turns to whether or not the legislature can come to any agreement at all over the next eight days. The special session is slated to end May 18 and if lawmakers want to pass a construction spending plan beyond that deadline, they'll have to do it in a second special session.

Governor Parnell can call another, but his spokesperson, Sharon Leighow told me today that "no decision has been made."

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