Dunleavy vetoes hunting residency bill and university fee bill

Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed the bill that would have tightened residency requirements for hunting, trapping and sport fishing licenses. The veto leaves the current standard in place as fall hunts approach. He also vetoed House Bill 176, a measure that would have required the University of Alaska system to itemize student fees.

Both veto messages were dated Aug. 10 and read into the Alaska State Senate record Tuesday morning by the Senate secretary. She cited Article 2, Section 15 of the Alaska Constitution, the governor's veto authority. No senator debated the vetoes, and no vote was taken. Sen. Jesse Kiehl presided over the brief technical session.

The same batch of messages reported that the governor let two other bills become law without his signature under Article 2, Section 17 of the Alaska Constitution. Senate Bill 143 concerns school board terms and training and city councils. Senate Bill 208 concerns agricultural land, hemp and the state vegetable.

The residency measure, House Bill 93, would have required 180 days of physical presence in Alaska each year to qualify for a resident license, matching Permanent Fund Dividend eligibility. The measure cleared both chambers, with the House approving it 24-16, and carried an effective date in 2028.

At a Senate Resources Committee hearing on May 6, the bill's sponsor said the boards that manage fish and game backed the change. "I don't think anyone is more invested in Alaska's in the conservation of Alaska's Fish and Game resources than our Board of Fisheries and our Board of Game," Rep. Rebecca Himschoot said. "And those folks also support the bill."

Dunleavy said in his veto message that the residency rules were "unnecessarily restrictive" and that some Alaskans could still lose resident status even with the military and student exceptions written into the bill.

The second vetoed bill, HB 176, was the Student Fee Transparency Act. Rep. Ashley Carrick told a Senate committee in May that the measure grew out of years of student conversations about consolidated fees. She said those fees offer students far less transparency. The university system currently is not required to notify students when it creates or raises systemwide and campuswide fees. The veto leaves that lack of a notification requirement in place.

Overriding a veto requires the Legislature to meet in joint session, where two-thirds of the members must vote to override, or three-fourths in the case of appropriation and revenue bills.