Alaska Legislature

The vote was the second successful veto override after lawmakers convened Saturday for a special session called by Dunleavy.

On Monday, July 28, the governor called for legislators to address what he called “Alaska’s chronic education outcome crisis,” and to reconsider his executive order they had previously voted down, creating a new Alaska Department of Agriculture that he said would strengthen food security in Alaska.

Despite unfinished business in the Alaska Legislature, school districts across the state have reached the deadline to submit the operating budgets that will carry them into 2026. Most of the sprawling districts that serve the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta say they have already planned for the worst.

Hoffman has served in the state Capitol, representing Southwest Alaska, since 1987. As he prepares to leave office, he said he thinks the state’s biggest unresolved issue is the affordability of living in Alaska, particularly with regard to the cost of energy.

With oil prices low and likely to go lower, and uncertain federal revenue, senators say this year's budget is tight — and that next year's will be tighter.

The governor's counterproposal, announced along with his veto Thursday, would tie a smaller funding increase to policy changes.

The Alaska House of Representatives is backing the preservation of a multibillion-dollar federal aid program that subsidizes internet access for rural schools, clinics, and households.

The bill’s sponsor called it a “wonderful compromise.” It boosts the largest part of the state’s public school funding formula by $1,000.

Narrowed gaps between provider reimbursements and medical costs and an aging population with more health problems are expected cost drivers, lawmakers are told.

In Juneau and Washington D.C., legislators try to keep federal chaos at bay, one phone call and story at a time.