JUNEAU — The House Republican Caucus calls on the Legislature to slow down and review a historic $500-million supplemental budget request that has been put on the fast track.
The vote on advancing House Bill 289 to a second reading on Wednesday was 21-19 with all members of the House Minority voting no. The bill is expected to advance to a third reading and adoption as soon as Friday.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything move so fast,” House Minority Leader Rep. DeLena Johnson, R-Palmer, said. “This came out of House Finance on Monday and here we have it on the floor on Wednesday. That’s about as fast as $500 million can move in the Legislature, especially since we’re talking about the largest supplemental in state history.
“Speed is not the same as leadership,” Johnson added. “Leadership requires discipline. It requires giving people time to ask some hard questions, and even when the answers are uncomfortable we should be required to take the time and look at the fine points. We need to examine assumptions. We need to challenge these projections. A rushed budget undermines trust. We are sending a signal to the public that we are not going to engage in detail.”
House Bill 289 provides funding aimed at capturing matching federal dollars for highway projects but is also padded with items that the Legislature declined to fund when it adopted the fiscal year 2026 budget.
Rep. Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks, a member of the House Finance Committee, offered multiple amendments aimed at focusing on providing the matching federal highway dollars and setting aside other items for further review.
“What is a fast track supplemental and what is not? Most of the items in this bill are not items that we need to act on anytime soon,” Stapp said. “We can fund the necessary match that the DOT requires at the moment. We can talk about the rest of the stuff later. Every contractor that came to my office said, ‘Hey, meet the match. Please don’t hold Alaska’s construction season hostage by playing games with the supplemental budget. Don’t hold us hostage in your budget negotiations.’
“We were told that this is a fast track supplemental,” Stapp said, “and we want to deal with items of critical importance, and yet we are throwing a giant half a billion dollar document over to the other body that we are probably not going to be able to fund.”
“What are we here for?” Minority Whip Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna, said. “I guess just sign the blank check and send it over. Maybe we need $500 million. I am more apt to probably say we don’t in a supplemental. We definitely need to meet some of those match dollars for our contractors and DOT. I think we do have an obligation to discuss what is truly a fast track supplemental and what is not.”
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