I'd like to call the Senate State Affairs Committee meeting to order.
I let the record reflect that it's Tuesday, January 20th.
At the time now is 3.30 PM, present today are Senator Bjorkman, Vice Chair.
Senator Wielikowski, Senator Gray-Jackson, senator Tilton, my self-chair Kawasaki.
We do have a quorum to conduct business.
We'd like to thank Kerry Topoe from Senate Records.
Thanks for being here again.
And Zachary Longhorn, a moderator
with the Legislative Information Office.
Thank you.
We also wanted to say thanks to Joe Hayes,
the staff to the Senate State Affairs Committee.
Today we have hearing, we're the first hearing of the day.
We have Senate Joint Resolution 2 it's a constitutional amendment on votes necessary for a veto override
We had a second hearing scheduled on Senate resolution 13 appointment of state judges
So there's no business before the committee yet
We will first bring up Senate joint resolution to constitutional Amendment is by Senator Matt Klayman
and if senator Kleyman
And his staff, Carley Dennis, would like to come up to present the bill to the committee.
Thank you Mr. Chair and members of the Committee for the record.
I'm Matt Klayman, State Senator for Senate District H in West Anchorage.
First, I'd like thank you for hearing Senate Joint Resolution 2.
The Senate Joint Resolution 2 makes an important change to our state constitution to improve
the public's ability to influence executive and legislative decisions on revenue and appropriations
matters.
It would amend Article 2 Section 16 of our Constitution to lower the override requirements
for revenue in appropriations vetoes from 3-4 of the legislature sitting in joint session
Alaska has the highest requirements for overriding a veto of an revenue or
appropriations matter of any state.
Only one other state, Arizona, comes close.
Arizona has a high override standard of three quarters, but
only for vetoed revenue bills, not for appropriations matters.
The other 48 states have lower override requirements for revenue and appropriation bills.
Most states require a two-thirds votes from both legislative chambers to override a gubernatorial veto.
Seven states required a three-fifths vote and six states only require
a single majority to overwrite a veto, few states differentiate between vetoed revenue
and appropriations items and typical policy bills
The three-quarter requirement makes it extremely difficult
for the legislature to override a revenue
or appropriations veto.
In the past two decades, the legislator has twice
overrode and appropriations vetoed.
And many legislators are familiar
with the public's frustration over the protracted average
to override the governor's vetoes
of public education funding.
This summer, data for progress conducted a poll
of Alaskans that showed strong support
for this amendment to our Constitution.
The three quarter requirement also creates a difficult double standard for
revenue and appropriations legislation to pass the governor.
A typical policy bill that might contain a fiscal note requires a two thirds vote to override if it receives a governor's veto.
If that override vote succeeds, the Governor may then use his line item veto to remove the funding for the bill from the budget.
That line item veto then requires a three-quarter vote to pass or to override the veto.
We saw this dynamic unfold when the Governor vetoed House Bill 57 last May,
the legislature override that veto, then the governor vetoed the funding for
HB 57 education funding from the budget, lowering the revenue and
appropriations requirement to two-thirds will align your requirements for
all vetoed legislation and eliminate this loophole.
In crafting our Constitution, Alaska's framers established a strong governor form of government.
This structure is evident when looking at the three-quarter legislative vote requirement to override fiscal legislation.
When Alaska was a young state, the idea of a stronger governor made sense.
Today, we are no longer a younger state although we might like to think we're.
Our economy has grown in public participation in the political process has increased.
This amendment returns more power to all Alaskans and their elected representatives and senators.
If two-thirds of the House and Senate each approved SOR to appear on the general election ballot for voters in November,
it is not subject to a governor's veto.
And if you wish, my staff, Carly Dennis, is available for a sectional analysis.
Hearing and seeing none, thank you Senator Clayman.
If Ms. Dennis would like to just read through the sectional, we'd love to hear it.
Yeah, Thank you.
For the record, this is Carly Dennis, staff to Senator clayman, section one deletes the three quarters vote requirement for
override vetoes for revenue and appropriations bills or items and changes the requirement to a two thirds vote.
And section two would put the amendment proposed by this resolution on the ballot in the next general election for Alaska voters to consider.
Thank you
Thank You, Miss Dennis. Are there any questions? I guess I have a question if this resolution were to pass this year
Both chambers win under which election will it be held on?
November 2026
Okay, so that would be the November election for general election, okay
any other questions for either Miss Denis or
sponsor senator clayman
Hearing and seeing none
Thank you for being here to present the bill. We do have
Somebody who is invited testimony. Uh, we also will open up public testimony
first if
We will go ahead and hear from the invited testimony.
We have Laura Capelli.
Laura has been a public educator in Fairbanks since 2004.
Working as a reading tutor, special education aid,
and an ELL tutor slash instructor.
She last worked as an ELL program records manager
supporting the E-LL staff school.
and families. Laura has served on the NIA Alaska Board of Directors, the ESSA Executive Board,
and the FEA bargaining team, and Nia Alaska Human and Civil Rights Committee.
And has previously served two terms as NEA Alaska's Vice President.
Laura is serving in her first term as the NEA Alaska President, working to continually expand
and strengthen the network of communication and support for public education and educators in Alaska.
I'd like to invite you and welcome to the Senate State Affairs Committee.
Thank you Chair Callisawki. Good afternoon and good afternoon to
the members of the senate state affairs committee. My name is Laura Capel and I am president of
I'm here to testify today in support of SJR2.
I want to talk a little bit about how this impacts public education in Alaska.
I am also going to just talk about our members' feelings about the constitutionality of this
and this kind of budgetary veto override threshold in the context of our general democracy.
Having a lot of social studies teachers involved.
I've got great information.
Many Alaskan members support the current effort to bring the gubernatorial budget veto override
threshold to that of two-thirds of the legislature rather than the three-quarters vote threshold
that has been in place since statehood.
The three quarters vote for a budget visa override is an unreasonably high threshold.
placing a greater undo and sometimes untenable burden on legislators to represent the will
of their constituents. The direct impact to public education of this veto override provision
create great instability within our public educational system as school boards, school
are caught in the quadmire of uncertainty in education funding
sent essential to supporting students in their communities.
For years, Alaska educators, parents, and students have been caught
in this cycle of budgetary whiplash. We have watched as a broad
bipartisan majority of the legislature listens to the needs of their constituents,
Only to see those priorities inexplicably dismantled by a single gubernatorial pen.
After the legislators have left the Capitol at the conclusion of the legislative session and are at home with their constituents.
The editorial vetoes of education funding for our constitutionally mandated public school system don't just cut a number on a page.
They dramatically disrupt school districts' planning
and put families in a state of turmoil,
not knowing if the public schools in their communities
will be able to support their students' learning.
In June 2025, we witnessed an unprecedented line
item veto to cut the Bay Student Allocation
in statutory formula.
No governor in the history of Alaska
had ever targeted the bay student allocation in this way.
It demonstrated that the reliable core of school funding on which our communities depend
could be subject to the whims of the executive branch, clearly obstructing the will of legislature.
Because of our current constitutional override requirement, it took an extraordinary nearly
impossible effort to correct that mistake.
If even one legislator had been weathered out of Juneau, had a family emergency, or had
even been able to attend because of an honorable military deployment, our public schools would
have suffered, facing a $51 million shortfall crisis.
Clearly, this rager fin override margin does not allow for the assured representation of
the will of the majority of Alaskans.
to propose an amendment to the United States Constitution,
then it is for the Alaska State Legislature,
legislature to overriding gubernatorial budget veto.
The framers of the US Constitution
saw any veto requiring an override vote
of over two-thirds of a legislature
as leading to unbibocratic, unbalanced,
executive executive power.
And now we can see why.
Our balance of power in Alaska needs to support co-equal branches of government without
tipping the scales in favor of the executive branch, enabling one official to extract lawful
funding from Alaska communities.
SJR2 is a much needed opportunity for corrections.
It aligns the override requirements for budget vetoes with the two-thirds standard used for
every other piece of legislation in this state.
Through their elected representatives say, public education is our value and our priority,
their voices carry strength. For the stability and instruction in our classrooms and communities,
the ability of our school boards to meet student needs and their attention and recruitment of
educators who lead this state. I'm sure if they won't have a position next year due to summertime
We need to create more safeguards to the process of funding education and all other budget funding that preserves and enhances the quality of life in Alaska, protecting them from questionable gubernatorial budget details.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to testify today.
Great. Thank You very Much, Miss Capella. Are there any questions?
Actually, I do have a question since I've got you online.
The the veto ended up being way later in August and the 45 person threshold is pretty high.
I'm curious, how did school boards try to just try, to decide what to do since their budget cycle is normally way back in?
they try to close out in March or April.
It depended on the school board really,
so it really impacts it widely
bribed according to school districts.
Some districts sort of hedged their bets that well,
first it's to start by guessing whether or not
the governor was going to veto this budget allocation
because it has been kind of a pattern.
And so sometimes they just eliminated positions.
And employees were given like pink flips,
and so they really felt like they needed to move on
instead of taking a chance of getting
an open-position in Alaska if we happened
to have the funding for it.
That was sort of the variable that school boards,
I think, were forced to look at.
It's just like sort guessing whether or not
there was going to be a veto, how much it was gonna be,
and then it would be able to get overridden.
So like I mean, yeah.
We've got to answer your question.
It sure does.
Thank you very much, Ms. Capella.
Are there any other questions for the invited testimony?
OK.
Hearing and seeing none, we will go ahead.
We now will open this up to public testimony.
If there is anybody here in the room
or anybody in in room that would like
to testify on Senate Joint Resolution 2,
Is there anybody who'd like to?
Speak to Senate resolution to regarding the constitutional amendment
For the veto override welcome to the Senate State Affairs Committee. Thank you.
Chair Kawasaki and as always committee taking time for public testimony. My name is Caroline Storm
Today I am speaking as a private citizen of Alaska and my testimony is just that I support
this resolution that i think due to the fact that we have the highest threshold, it is time
to re-examine that. I would just like to offer that, I do teach civics for citizens, for potential
new citizens and I always tell my students, my adult students that have one of the strongest
in the nation or state constitution, but in this case we've sort of limited our ability to
be as representational as we need to be. So I support the resolution and thank you for
taking testimony. Great. Thank you, Ms. Storm. Are there any questions? Okay. Hearing and seeing
none, is there anybody else in there room who'd like to testify in Senate resolution number two?
Okay, and is there anybody online who'd like to testify?
There is a person online from Anchorage.
We have Ms. Obermeyer, if you'd
like, to state your name and your affiliation for the record
and try and keep it under three minutes.
Am I speaking?
Is this Senator Kowalzaki?
Yes, it is.
OK.
Welcome to the committee.
Yes.
Yes?
I can't get you visually, so I will just say I sent two letters.
I understand you've tabled SJR 13.
So I have a letter about that one, and I also have
a letters about SJRs.
Did you get my two letter?
Ms. Overmeyer, I think we did get your letters,
but we are not, or we'll.
when we open up uh so sorry senate joint resolution 13 if there's no sponsor here
will not be heard today but senate join resolution 2 is being heard right now and you're welcome
to testify if you like yes or but did you get my written statement i just wanted to understand
are you able to get that oh um we did get affirmation that uh the committee did receive it
Okay, now, this is the first day of a legislature, so it's not perfect, but I did want to write
out issues and would you always forgive me, Senator Kawasaki?
This is so unseemly what could have been possible, and I'm very apologetic about the
truth.
Would you forgive for that?
I support S.A.R. 2, but certainly not because Senator Matt Klayman introduced it.
Matt, this is a part of your gubernatorial campaign, what I wrote, and I'm just reading
from what i wrote.
I apologize that I must be very critical of Mr. Kleyman.
I am going to label Mr Klyman as a wolf and sheep's clothes.
I am married to Thomas S. Overreyer, Missouri attorney since 1990, but still not licensed
right before last year.
If I could just, do you have testimony for Senate joint resolution two at this time?
Yes, I do.
It's regarding the fact what I just summarized very briefly Scott.
And that is Mr. Quayman has been in the legislature for 11 years.
And today, well, he did introduce this, I think, in February of 2025, but I might
rhetorical question, is this part of mass gubernatorial campaign?
You see, sir, He has been in the legislature for all these years, and there have been so
many opportunities for Mr. Coleman to do something fair and reasonable and he never had.
Does he think he's going to get elected governor or introducing and we've been introduced 11 years ago?
Miss.
Miss Scott, are you stopping me?
I don't want to pound the gavel down, but I do want try to, if you could direct your comments about the content and Senate Joint Resolution 2, that would be great.
That's what we'd like to hear today.
Yes, my wife, of course I support.
Of course, I would support this.
I mean, and that's what I wrote.
I read the report of SJR2.
That was the title of what
I write that I hope you see,
sir, I have been on the
Anchorage School Board.
I know documents laughing and I
know that you can't possibly
learn and know all of this.
So that why I also know the
power of the print was.
That's why wrote out what
I wanted to say and
I didn't want to be overly
passionate.
So I apologize, I'm overly passionate.
I come from a family of attorneys,
and I am a judge of daughters.
And I could never, in a million years,
have imagined the way both my husband
and II have been treated in the States.
I do hope that all of you will check my Facebook group.
And that is a West, Alaska Attorney General, 2025.
I is really trying to ask that the truth
finally surface. And so would you forgive me? I'm trying to make an example out of myself.
I am highly educated. I don't want to be sure.
I have a refined person that would all girls do.
I started by saying this is all so unseemly.
And I very apologetic about that.
I do not want me being spirited to anybody.
I really haven't been taken these 48 years.
to say this and not
Do you want me to save anything else?
No, I think we've got your three minutes of testimony and we appreciate your time, Ms. Obermeyer
And we're going to move on to Holmer now
We have uh
Teresa Lewandowski if you could state your name and your affiliation for the record welcome to the senate state affairs committee
Thank you. My name is Trie Sloendowski and I'm calling from Homer and
I am calling in support of SJR 2. This should be put to the voters to let the
voters decide of course because it's a constitutional amendment but I just want
to point out that I've heard it from my friends. I feel the same way I even
heard from legislators there's too much executive power. If it takes more than
That's the scene right, especially in some of the situations that we've witnessed these past this past year. So, I just applaud. I don't care who is introducing this whose bill it is.
I've heard it from others, but thank you. And I support it.
Great. Thank you very much, Miss Lewandowski. Are there any other anybody else online? Anybody else in the room who'd like to testify.
Okay, hearing and seeing none, we'll go ahead and close public testimony.
I'd offer the floor to the sponsor of the bill if you'd like to have any questions or
comments that you would like bring up or any question for this sponsor.
Any final statements before we set the Bill's Eye?
Thank you.
Hearing it again later this week.
Okay.
Yes.
We'll try to hear it on Thursday.
But if there's no further questions, then we will go and set Senate Joint Resolution
2 aside.
Thank you for presenting the bill, and we will take a brief at ease.
Sorry, we'll bring back the Senate State Affairs Committee
meeting to order.
Originally we had put on the calendar
to hear Senate Joint Resolution 13.
It is a bill rules by request of the governor.
Is there anybody here on behalf of
the Governor's Office?
Well, there's nobody here
from the Covener's office representing
Senate joint resolution 13?
We will set it aside, Senator Wilakowski.
Just to clarify, was the governor's office
notified that this bill would be scheduled for hearing today?
Yes, senator Wilikowski, we did ask the Governor
if he would like the bill heard.
We, of course, recently had a meeting with the
Governor about making sure that his bills are heard
and that we've got this sort of relationship built in place
that will act on bills.
that is exactly what this committee wants to do is hear bills either from
from any sponsor of any bill they need to submit it in writing and we will hear the bill and
we'll take it up about whether it's good or not he was given several weeks maybe it wasn't long
enough uh to uh make sure that the attorney general was uh able to attend the Bill Herring
Well, just to clarify, Mr. Chairman, the governor was notified this was a publicly
noticed meeting.
He was notified his office was
notified several weeks ago that he would be heard on the first day and they've refused
to attend.
Is that correct?
Well that is what it appears again.
We want to make sure.
Thank you.
Senator Wieckowski for pointing that out.
We do want
to
make
So that we as a committee can take proper action and move bills forward. So again, we will do that. We will meet
Tuesdays Thursdays and even Saturdays are on the calendar currently and
We'll have those hearings
We have them every day of the week and as long as we need to to make sure that
We dispatch the work of a legislature in the Senate
Mr. Chairman, I do just want to point out that if you schedule a hearing and you're told
weeks in advance and refuse to attend, just for the public out there and anybody that
might have another bill, there's probably a high likelihood your bill's not going to
get hurt again.
That would be my suggestion just as a member of the committee.
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah.
I guess that goes for every person who brings a bill or who has a Bill that's in committee
a hearing request to Joe Hayes or the Senate State Affairs Committee directly.
We will try and make sure that we've got all of these bills heard and
discussed in the open and we appreciate doing that kind of work.
So this will conclude the meeting for today. Our next official meeting is scheduled for Thursday,
January 22nd. We will hear under bills previously heard Senate Joint Resolution 2
and look for action at that point. And we will also hear bills
previously hear or scheduled. If there's no other business to come before the committee,