A proposed change to the state constitution passed an initial legislative hurdle a day after lawmakers failed to override Gov. Dunleavy’s veto of an education bill.
The Alaska Senate State Affairs Committee on Tuesday advanced a resolution that would lower the veto override threshold for spending bills.
Alaska’s constitution currently calls for a threshold of three-quarters of lawmakers, or 45 out of 60, to override the governor’s veto on budget-related bills. For all other bills — including the education bill considered on Monday — the threshold is two-thirds, or 40.introduced by Sen. Matt Claman, an Anchorage Democrat, would lower the threshold for budget bill veto overrides to two-thirds, matching it to the threshold used for non-fiscal bills.
“The idea of ‘let’s start out and give the executive a bit more authority’ — I think at that time it made sense, but I think we’ve become a much more engaged population and much more sophisticated Legislature,” said Claman. The Legislature has never successfully mustered enough votes to override Dunleavy’s vetoes. Lawmakers last overrode a governor’s veto in 2009, when then-Gov. Sarah Palin vetoed a federal stimulus package. LawmakersThe practice of overriding vetoes was more common in the past and has happened successfully 43 times in the state’s history, according to legislative librarians. Lawmakers overrode then-Gov. Tony Knowles’ vetoes 20 times between 1995 and 2002. They overrode then-Gov.
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