Alaska Senate opens fourth special session with technical session, adjourns to Friday

The Alaska State Senate opened the 34th Legislature's fourth special session Monday without acting on the natural gas tax legislation that brought lawmakers back to Juneau. The Senate adjourned until 11:00 am Friday, July 31.

The chamber convened only for a technical session, a procedural sitting that waived the roll call.

The secretary read Gov. Mike Dunleavy's July 16 proclamation convening the session. It covers natural gas project taxation, municipal property taxes, the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, school funding contributions and the Alaska Affordable Heating Fuel Fund.

The failed measure behind those items, House Bill 381, would have replaced the state's pipeline property tax with a volumetric tax while adding municipal-impact grants and heating-fuel provisions.