Lawmakers leave the House chamber after adjourning sine die in the early morning hours of Thursday, May 16, 2024.
“It’s been a pretty successful two years, I believe, in so many ways, whether it’s in the budget issues that our committees have been working on, whether it’s in energy or in education, all of those areas we’ve worked forward, and I think we’ve made some great successes,” Stevens said. House Minority Leader Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage, said he was glad to see some of the minority coalition’s priorities included in the state budget. But he said several things — among them, a fiscal plan, a pension plan for public-sector workers and a long-term increase in education funding — were missed opportunities.
“It gives some certainty and surety that our Alaskan families, Mr. President, that value their freedom and their educational choice, can use those homeschool allotment monies as they have for a decade,” he said. The homeschool language was added as an amendment to House Bill 202, which would require schools to carry opioid overdose reversal drugs like naloxone.Lawmakers approved $175 million in additional one-time funding above the traditional formula for public schools. That’s roughly equivalent to a $680 increase in the base student allocation, which provides the basic state funding for Alaska’s public schools. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has said he does not plan to reduce the amount with a line-item veto.
“I think we would come out ahead by retaining the more qualified teachers,” Rep. Mike Prax, R-North Pole said of House Bill 230.With gas producers in Cook Inlet warning that production is dwindling, energy — both from fossil fuels and renewable energy — was a key policy priority for members in both bodies this session. And in the end, the Legislature passed several proposals aimed at lowering costs, expanding gas supplies and boosting renewable energy.
That carbon could come from abroad and be stored in depleted gas fields in Cook Inlet — the Biden administration is studying whether Japanese carbon emissions could be liquefied and shipped to Alaska. But that’s likely a ways off.