Governor vetoes five bills passed after midnight on adjournment night, May 16

By
Suzanne Downing
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27

Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed the five bills (HB 19, 29, 122, 189, 203) passed by the Alaska Legislature after the constitutionally mandated deadline to adjourn the session at midnight, May 16, 2024.

“I understand the Legislature’s desire to keep working into the early morning hours of May 16 so its members could pass a few more bills before the conclusion of the 33rd session,” the governor said in a statement. “However, Article II, Section 8 of the Alaska Constitution is unambiguous. All five bills passed after midnight of the 121st day, and the session was not extended by an affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the membership of each body. After consulting the Attorney General Treg Taylor, I determined the only course of action was to adhere to the Constitution and veto the bills. The sponsors can reintroduce the bills when the 34th Session of the Alaska Legislature convenes five months from now.”

The bill related to such things as derelict vessels, insurance issues, railroad bonds for the Seward dock repair/replacement, alcoholic beverage sales, and wage payment.

Governor Dunleavy’s veto transmittal letters are posted here.

27 COMMENTS

  2. I imagine this business of being in session on Day 122 would never have become an issue if the legislature had followed state law and adjourned “not later than” the 90th day of session.

    Perhaps legislators following that particular law isn’t such a bad idea after all.

    • Well this comment is RICH. They can’t get done because of you! I think Will Muldoon reported: “Eastman is putting up Wilt level stats for time wasting:
      Total of 663 floor votes:
      86 lone nay votes.
      27 lone yea votes.”

      Wasilla, vote Jubilee Underwood – you need to get rid of this guy.

      • Eastman is one of the few politicians who generally gets it.

        Jubilee Underwood also seems solid.

        Isn’t there a big enough pie for all good hearted people instead of training fire on each other?

        • Good point. Beating each other up for sticking with their values is why we make choices on the ballot and not paying them to go along just to get along.

          Jim Kaufman is a great example of a Democrats favorite Republican for that reason.

        • sorry but Eastman does not get it. On some level he probably understands how to work with people and accomplish his and his fellow republicans goals. But in practice he cannot seem to find his footing. He has accomplished nothing in his time in the legislature except to extend the time it takes to do business and then bitch when the session goes past 90 days. It is easy to be conservative when you vote no on everything. And it is dissappointing to see him working with, and advising, the progressives against his fellow conservatives.

          • > it is dissappointing to see him working with, and advising, the progressives against his fellow conservatives.

            Good faith proof?

          • Several people in this thread reference the statutory limit of 90 days. The reason for the vetoes was the constitutional limit of 121 days. When the former was passed in 2006, it didn’t take long to figure out the reasons behind it. Jay Ramras poured a bunch of money into sponsoring the initiative to increase his name recognition for a future statewide campaign, which occurred four years later when he ran for lite guv. When pressed on the matter, he more or less admitted that the proposed law had no teeth.

            As for “extending the time it takes to do business”, I followed the FNSB Assembly on and off for decades. Throughout that time, you would hear bickering about conservative members “unnecessarily” dragging out meetings. This was due to those members discussing things in regular meetings where the public attended or listened on the radio. The common tactic of liberals was to discuss things only in work sessions, where borough staff would try to intimidate any members of the public who showed up, then rubber-stamp those items in regular meetings. Meetings begin at 6:00pm with public hearing beginning at 7:00pm. One such rubber-stamp meeting I remember adjourned at 7:38pm. There could have been people in attendance who didn’t know that the majority of the business was already conducted the week before in the work session.

            As it turned out, conservatives had nothing to do with perhaps the all-time nightmare meeting. In 2011, a pair of liberal members were leaving the body due to term limits. One meeting was devoted almost entirely to approving their remaining pet projects and adjourned at 3:17am. We should be hearing about that meeting as an example of abusing the privilege of office for years to come, which we don’t because of their political leanings.

      • This is pure swamp talk.

        On the one hand we say we are glad the governor vetoed bills like HB189 above, but then you want to criticize the one legislator who had the temerity to actually vote against it (39-1).

        If you are saying that I do a poor job representing Juneau when Juneau conflicts with the folks back home, I’m guilty as charged.

      • Is anyone playing tit for tat and analyzing Will Muldoon’s voting record on the Juneau School Board? It seems a lot of people get elected nowadays due to their willingness to vote a certain way every time. I’m a little too far removed to know if that’s the case here.

        Also, remember the oft-repeated talking point “We don’t need libraries anymore because we have Google”? History is being actively weaponized as a result. People like Will Muldoon and Matt Buxton spend a lot of time gaslighting everyone into believing that Rep. Eastman’s voting habits are unprecedented. I was around the legislature quite a bit in the 1980s and 1990s and witnessed Terry Martin make a lot of lone votes. Since Google isn’t going to hand you that information on a silver platter, it’s easy for them to play dumb and pretend that it never happened. And yet, it appears there’s people who give credence to their messaging?

      • Here is what I suspect: the republican party is once again trying to run someone against Eastman to vote him out just like they did by zoning Kurka into Eastman’s area. Rep. Eastman is the only one who has been working for his constituents and not big money.

        • Eastman is worthless. If a republican does not do things exactly his way he has his henchmen attack them. His worshipers have attacked Johnson, Mccabe, Tilton, Rauscher, Vance, Sumner, Ruffridge, and many others – oh, except demoncrates. He has never passed a bill and few amendments. He constantly works against his fellow republicans then whines when they “don’t like him” or remove him from a committee. Then he lies and says how his district is unrepresented and it is not his fault. Typical narcissist with aspergers syndrom. It is about time his followers realize he is the Jim Jones of the Republican party in the valley.

          • Well, a score card (link below) that was put together to show how well reps vote constitutionally shows Eastman as being a 100% constitutional voter. All the others you mention, I have watched them – during meetings – working together to make life hell for Eastman during the meetings. Why? I suspect because he sticks to the Constitution and the others don’t want to follow the Constitution. All those that you listed are not strong, conservative “Republicans” and as far as I am concerned, I wish each and everyone of them was replaced with another 100% Constitutionally-voting rep.

            ‘https://thefreedomindex.org/ak/

  3. I am so proud to be a registered republican team integrity, Nancy Dahlstrom deserves our votes she advised me when I was lost & in a kind way. BIG MIKEY MIKE PRESIDENT TRUMP LIKES YOU THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEGRITY TO WE THE PEOPLE SIR.

  4. I don’t think a motion to adjourn is required when the Constitution of the State of Alaska terminates the session on the date and at the time certain. It simply ends. The governor’s vetoes are appropriate even though the legitimacy of the bills passed after midnight could be challenged. If the legislative session ended at midnight it had no power to take any action after that time.

    • I’m no lawyer but, yeah, legally the legislation never existed because legally the legislature ended at midnight therefore they had no legal standing to pass legislation.
      But that would not stop some whackaloon leftoid judge from saying that emanations of penumbra upheld the bills legal standing.

  5. Veto 5 bills he did, but he also signed 3 renewable energy bills of which renewable energy is a conservative value.

  6. Great job, Mike. Bills passed at the last second that get little scrutiny by the administration or by the citizens deserve to be canned. More of this, please. The legislature had 90 days. They spent their time fighting and bickering and generally getting away with what they wouldn’t normally get away with if they were back home.

  8. The Governor absolutely did the right thing by vetoing the bills. His act is completely consistent with the Alaska Constitution and avoids litigation.
    Nice work Governor.
    Thank you.

  9. Good job! The legislature had plenty of time to get things done on time but as usual tried to wait until the last minute to pass some bills. Midnight means just that, midnight.

  10. Kudos to the Governor for protecting the State Constitution. Now, if he could only protect our votes with some tough election integrity laws. Get rid of the machines and mail-in voting Governor.

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