Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, left, is applauded as he exits the joint session of the Alaska Legislature following two veto override votes on August 2, 2025. (Marc Lester / ADN)

JUNEAU — Alaska lawmakers overrode two of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s vetoes in a joint session Saturday, marking what Senate President Gary Stevens called an “unprecedented” move by the Legislature.

Saturday’s votes were the culmination of months of strife between the Legislature and the governor, in which lawmakers accused the governor of failing to communicate with them about his priorities, and the governor accused lawmakers of not taking his policy ideas seriously.

Lawmakers in May overrode Dunleavy’s veto of a bill that significantly increased the state’s education funding formula for the first time since 2017. Dunleavy responded by vetoing education funding directly from the budget.

Dunleavy then called a special session in summer, and asked Republican minority members not to attend the first days of the session in an effort to thwart majority members’ attempts to override his vetoes.

Despite the governor’s attempt to bypass an override attempt, lawmakers on Saturday mustered the 45 votes needed to restore roughly $50 million in education funding that he had vetoed, with 10 Republican minority members in the House and Senate joining all 35 members of the bipartisan majorities in voting to restore the funding.

From the hallway outside the House chamber, cheers from education funding advocates could be heard after votes were cast.

The veto override resolves months of apprehension from school districts across the state. Educators said that Dunleavy’s veto — which came weeks after districts submitted their budgets for the coming school year — left them uncertain about how to proceed.

Dunleavy had called the special session with the intention of having lawmakers again review his education policy proposals, which include creating a new method to authorize charter schools and allowing students to enroll in schools outside of the district in which they reside. But House and Senate members said they would instead wait for an education task force to review the proposals. The task force is set to meet for the first time on Aug. 25.

After lawmakers overrode his vetoes, Dunleavy said that “there’s two divergent views on how to fix a problem in Alaska.” Dunleavy said lawmakers favored “money” as the solution, while he favored “policy.”

But lawmakers and the governor both sought a different mix of both policy and money. Lawmakers appeared open to some of the governor’s education ideas, including allowing tribes to run their own schools, but said they needed more time to review the proposals during the regular session, which is set to begin in January.

Dunleavy’s education proposals also include grant programs that could cost the state more than $50 million annually — the same amount that lawmakers restored to districts on Saturday.

Lawmakers also overrode Dunleavy’s veto of a bill meant to ensure the state is collecting the oil and gas taxes it is owed, after leaders of the House and Senate said the Dunleavy administration may be leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in oil and gas tax revenue on the table.

Stevens and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon had identified the two veto override attempts as their top priorities during the special session. After the successful override votes, lawmakers ended the joint session, precluding efforts to override some of Dunleavy’s other vetoes, including his veto of millions of dollars in school maintenance and construction funding, and another of state transportation reappropriations that could put hundreds of millions in federal highway dollars in jeopardy.

House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, an Anchorage Republican, said there was “a total lack of partisan fight or bickering on them, and that is important to us.” He said lawmakers were concerned they didn’t have a similar consensus about other vetoed legislation.

Edgmon said lawmakers would consider restoring some of the vetoed funding during the regular session in January.

Lawmakers ended their meeting Saturday by recessing the special session, which Dunleavy had called for 30 days, until Aug. 19. Legislative leaders were noncommittal about whether they would in fact hold further substantive hearings before the end of the month.

“It costs in excess of $30,000 a day to be in special session,” said Rep. Louise Stutes, a Kodiak Republican who serves in the majority. “We can save the state tons of money — literally” by not meeting, she added.

Dunleavy said he did not regret calling the special session, despite lawmakers’ override votes and their unwillingness to consider his policies.

“This gives the people of Alaska (the opportunity) to see where people stand on these votes,” he said.

Dunleavy said he was open to the idea of calling lawmakers into another special session next month, if they didn’t use the current session to consider his policy proposals.

“Will I call special sessions in the future? Maybe. Probably, if they need to be called,” he said.

Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, takes a breath after the results of the education funding veto override vote are displayed during the joint session of the Alaska Legislature at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on August 2, 2025. At left is Sen. Bill Wielechowski and at right is Sen. Forrest Dunbar. (Marc Lester / ADN) Several members of the Alaska Legislature huddle after two veto override votes during the special session in Juneau on August 2, 2025. (Marc Lester / ADN) The votes

The joint session Saturday afternoon was brief and included no debate or discussion.

Lawmakers first voted 43-16 to override Dunleavy’s veto of a bill meant to clarify the role of the legislative auditor. Overriding the governor required support from 40 lawmakers.

Lawmakers had adopted that bill after members of the Dunleavy administration declined to provide information on oil and gas tax audits to the legislative auditor, raising concerns among House and Senate leaders that the Department of Revenue was not collecting the full tax amounts owed to the state as required by law.

Edgmon and Stevens have said that the state could be losing hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. Dunleavy has called their concerns baseless.

The Legislature then voted 45-14 to override Dunleavy’s education funding veto, just hitting the 45-vote threshold needed to override a budget veto.

When lawmakers voted in May to override Dunleavy’s veto of the education bill, they did so with support from 46 lawmakers. The only legislator to flip her vote was Rep. Mia Costello, an Anchorage Republican and leader of the House Republican minority.

Costello said she had supported the education bill because it required Alaska schools to adopt cellphone policies. She said she opposed overriding Dunleavy’s budget veto because she agreed with Dunleavy’s prior assertion that the state didn’t have sufficient revenue. However, she said she supported Dunleavy’s $50 million education spending proposal because it’s “targeted.”

The results of the education funding veto override vote are displayed during the joint session of the Alaska Legislature at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on August 2, 2025. (Marc Lester / ADN) A spectator in the gallery during the joint session of the Alaska Legislature celebrates the results of the first of two veto override votes at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on August 2, 2025. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Voting in the joint session had been delayed from 10 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. after Rep. Robyn Burke, an Utqiagvik Democrat, missed her morning flight to Juneau from Anchorage. Her arrival Saturday afternoon meant that only one out of 60 lawmakers — Republican Sen. Mike Shower of Wasilla — was missing from the Capitol.

Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, greets visitors at the Alaska State Capitol before the start of a special session of the Alaska Legislature on August 2, 2025, in Juneau. (Marc Lester / ADN) Supporters of a veto override vote hold signs outside the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau as the special session begins on August 2, 2025, in Juneau. (Marc Lester / ADN) Executive order

Edgmon and Stevens wrote in a Saturday letter that Dunleavy’s executive order creating an agriculture department — one of the governor’s priories for the special session — was not in line with the state constitution because lawmakers had already rejected a similar order earlier this year, among other reasons.

Edgmon and Stevens wrote that the “introduction of an executive order during a special session is unprecedented and inconsistent” with the state constitution. They also said that “reintroduction of a previously rejected executive order in the same legislative session is contrary to the rules of procedure adopted by the Legislature.”

Lawmakers have said they plan to consider creating an agriculture department during the regular session that begins in January through legislation.

But Dunleavy responded Saturday to their letter by saying that he disagreed with their arguments and would execute his order unless lawmakers voted to reject it by the end of the month.

“The order may be disapproved only by resolution concurred in by a majority of the members in joint session,” Dunleavy wrote, adding that he viewed the letter from Stevens and Edgmon as “legally ineffective.”

“The Legislature’s dubious tactic will only manufacture an unnecessary legal dispute between the branches of government that will waste time and scarce public resources,” Dunleavy wrote to lawmakers.

Stevens said the Legislature had acted on advice from its attorneys but did not comment on the potential for a legal battle.

Supporters of a veto override vote hold signs outside the Alaska House chamber as Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, passes on August 2, 2025, in Juneau. From left are Eric Antrim, Laura Buchheit, Eliabeth Figus and Deborah Craig. (Marc Lester / ADN) Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, talks with Rep. Louise Stutes on the House floor after the veto override votes at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on August 2, 2025. (Marc Lester / ADN)

House Republican minority members raised objections to House and Senate leaders’ plan to recess the special session until Aug. 19, which would likely halt any substantive movement on Dunleavy’s policy priorities for the duration of the special session.

The recess — which lawmakers enabled through a resolution they adopted on Saturday — will prevent Dunleavy from calling them repeatedly into additional special sessions.

“This is a maneuver. I get it — it’s something that I would probably do, if I was sitting in your seat, Mr. Speaker,” said Rep. Kevin McCabe, a Big Lake Republican serving in the minority. “Unfortunately, those outside of this room don’t know how politics works and they’re wondering why we are doing this, why we are just going to say, ‘Nah, we’re not going to work on what the governor wants us to work on.’”

Edgmon said that the recess “doesn’t mean that we’re going to stop our work, by any stretch of the imagination, because we have a bicameral, bipartisan task force,” referring to the education committee that will begin its work later this month.

“We set the stage for us to come back and be successful and do it during a regular session, when we have full stakeholder engagement,” said Edgmon. “Because these policy matters are very important.”