The gas tax special session has stalled, with the bill already dead

Alaska lawmakers were called back to Juneau this summer for one thing: a special session on taxing natural gas. Weeks in, the House has killed the bill at the center of it, and both chambers are now gaveling in and out with nothing to vote on.

The House adjourned Friday until Monday after a few procedural motions, no votes, no debate. It was another in a run of technical sessions the chamber has held all summer. The state constitution bars either house from recessing more than three days without the other's consent, so brief sessions satisfy that rule without putting anything contested on the floor.

What's not moving is the reason they're there. This is the fourth special session, called on natural gas taxation, and the House has already killed the gas tax bill, HB 381. The Senate opened its own side July 27 as a technical session, then adjourned to July 31 after word came that the House had dispatched the bill.

The House reconvenes Monday at 10:30 a.m., for another technical session.