Alaska Legislature to Work Beyond Overtime to Solve Budget Crisis

Unable to resolve Alaska’s unprecedented budget crisis despite working 31 days past the usual 90-day session, the state’s Legislature adjourned on May 18 when the House fell one vote shy of the two-third majority necessary to keep going.

"Feel a little defeated and unfortunate, because Alaskans are the ones that are really going to suffer if we don't get a budget passed," House Majority Leader Charisse Millett said at a press conference as May 18 turned into May 19.

However, Gov. Bill Walker, who has proposed helping fill the $4 billion-plus budget deficit by doubling Alaska’s fuel taxes from 8.95 cents-per-gallon to 16 cents-per-gallon, immediately called for a special session beginning on May 23. Walker gets to set the entire agenda for the session.

Alaska is in budget crisis because of the plunge in recent years of the price of oil, the linchpin of its usual economic prosperity.