June 8, 2017 (Juneau, AK) – Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth today sat down with legislative leadership in both the House Majority and Senate Majority to brief them on the executive branch’s preparation for a potential shutdown of state government. If the legislature fails to pass a budget by June 30, 2017, the State will be in uncertain and unprecedented territory.
“A shutdown would put the State in a constitutional crisis,” said Attorney General Lindemuth. “Our constitution clearly says the power to determine where and how to spend money lies with the legislature. In the face of the legislature not upholding its constitutional duty, where does that leave state services and programs? That’s the question we are working to answer by evaluating every program or service provided by the State.”
Attorney General Lindemuth still believes the legislature can get the job done, but the executive branch also needs to start planning for the possibility that a compromise will not be reached in time. That was the purpose of her meeting today with legislative leadership. The Attorney General outlined the efforts that have been made so far to establish a tiered system to categorize services that can likely continue at some level during any potential shutdown as well as those that would need to be shutdown completely.
“Make no mistake—many state services will have to fully shutdown in order for us to remain in compliance with the constitution,” said Attorney General Lindemuth.
No matter how long the government is forced to shutdown there will be potential liabilities that accrue. There will be many contracts that are not paid or are otherwise breached, which may result in penalties and interest. There will be statutes that are not being fulfilled that will create additional legal liability. It will require additional efforts by the Department of Law after a shutdown is over to unwind all of legal matters that had to be halted or delayed while a shutdown was occurring.
Attorney General Lindemuth also briefed legislators on the incident command structure that Governor Walker is implementing.
For a copy of the fact sheet on shutdown planning provided to legislative leadership, go here.
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Governor Orders Incident Command Structure to Address Potential Government Shutdown
June 8, 2017 JUNEAU—To prepare for the crisis that an unprecedented government shutdown would impose upon Alaska, Governor Bill Walker ordered today that the Walker-Mallott Administration set up an incident command structure to prepare for a potential government shutdown. Given the legislature’s failure to pass a budget, Alaskans are facing a shutdown of government services in 22 days.
“I remain hopeful that both legislative bodies will come to a compromise in the next nine days of this special session,” Governor Walker. “However, my team and I must be prepared for a worst-case scenario. That is why I have ordered that an incident command structure be set up—much like we implemented to address the opioid crisis.”
Governor Walker will hold regular meetings with members of his Cabinet and those who are critical to addressing the potential impacts of the shutdown—many of which are not yet known. The Department of Law and the Office of Management and Budget have already begun analyzing the potential effects, and will continue to have leading roles under this new structure.
Some of the services provided by the governor’s and lieutenant governor’s staff at risk of being shut down, delayed or interrupted if the legislature fails to pass a budget before July 1:
- Responses to constituents’ requests for assistance and proclamations
- Human Rights Commission investigations into human rights complaints
- Authentication of signatures for Alaska companies doing business in foreign countries
- Authentication certification of paperwork for Alaskans hoping to adopt children from other countries
- Authentication paperwork to return the bodies of foreign nationals who die in Alaska
This year’s preparations for a government shutdown are different than in 2015, when the legislature had passed a partially funded budget. This year, money has not been appropriated for any government services. As a government shutdown in Alaska is unprecedented, Department of Law is examining what money could be spent to continue vital state services if the legislature has not fulfilled its constitutional obligation to pass a budget.
