Out of time? That’s rich. Alaska’s legislature has had years to work with Dunleavy, but won’t

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Sen. Bert Stedman says the governor is “out of time.”

Give me a break.

According to Alaska Public Media, Stedman, the Sitka Republican who co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee, says Gov. Mike Dunleavy can’t push through a fiscal plan in his final year.

“Quite frankly, he’s out of time,” Stedman said. He added that lawmakers tried “a couple of small steps” on revenue and spending, and complained the governor vetoed a revenue measure.

Here’s the problem with that argument: the Legislature hasn’t even started yet.

Lawmakers don’t gavel in for another 38 days, and then they get a full 120-day session. That’s four months. The first month, they usually only work for four days a week. Anyone hanging out at the Juneau International Airport on any given Thursday in January will witness legislators practically climbing over each other to get on outbound jets.

And Alaska’s Legislature already has a national reputation for wasting time that Stedman claims it doesn’t have.

Plenty of other states manage to govern just fine with far less time. Virginia meets for just 46 days in a non-budget year. In one recent session, lawmakers passed roughly 917 bills, including major gaslinen finance and criminal justice reforms.

Arkansas met for 94 days in 2025 and passed 1,026 bills into law. Not fluff bills, either. Arkansas lawmakers tackled higher-education reform, limits on DEI in government, maternal health expansion, election integrity rules, library governance, immigration enforcement, and even rewrote ballot language standards so voters could actually understand them.

Now look at Alaska: In 2025, Alaska’s Legislature passed 33 bills.

Thirty-three. Maybe we should be grateful, considering some of the bills offered by our bush-league legislators from both sides of the aisle.

The most consequential actions lawmakers took was cutting the Permanent Fund Dividend paid to the people of Alaska and giving that money to the teachers unions.

That’s what Alaskans got for their money.

Speaking of money, legislators collected roughly $7.26 million in total compensation to pass those 33 bills. Using base salary alone, that works out to about $152,000 per bill. Arkansas lawmakers, by contrast, averaged about $6,000 per bill. By that crude but telling metric, Alaska’s Legislature is roughly 26 times more expensive per bill than Arkansas.

And what were some of Alaska’s priorities?

There was a bill to rent out the governor’s mansion like an Airbnb. Another to add Juneteenth as a paid holiday for state workers. Another to name the state dinosaur.

Meanwhile, Alaskans are told there wasn’t enough time or money to keep their full dividend. So let’s talk about time.

Six legislators effectively run this Legislature:

• Bill Wielechowski – 18 years

• Lyman Hoffman – 38 years

• Donny Olson – 24 years

• Bert Stedman – 22 years

• Gary Stevens – 24 years

• Bryce Edgmon – 18 years

That’s 144 combined years in office. An average of 24 years each.

With that kind of institutional control, one reasonable question should haunt every voter: name five truly transformational pieces of legislation these leaders passed during all that time.

Don’t spend too long thinking about it. You won’t find anything.

Now contrast that with Alaska’s past. Legislators who once helped push through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Legislators who created the Permanent Fund. They tackled monumental challenges with vision and urgency, passing  key enabling measures. This included the Right of Way Leasing Act and the Alaska Pipeline Commission Act, both designed to streamline TAPS construction by regulating land leases and establishing a commission for oversight.

If today’s leadership had been in charge back then, TAPS would still be stuck in committee because there “wasn’t enough time.”

That excuse rings especially hollow when the rest of the world is moving.

Congress is advancing major Alaska resource policy. The president is signing legislation right and left reopening Alaska lands. The governor is pushing forward on a long-stalled gasline.