Dunleavy's refusal to call special session on COVID emergency endangers Alaska

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has refused to call a legislative special session to extend the COVID disaster declaration beyond Nov. 15, keeping up the pretense that it’s not his problem.

Dunleavy should have called the special session himself, as the Constitution allows, but he appears to be following his habit of evading when he should be governing. Perhaps he is waiting until the election is over, wary of irritating the anti-mask crowd before all the votes are in.

He had Ben Stevens, chief of staff, write to legislative leaders last week asking if they wanted to extend the disaster declaration and hold a special session before Nov. 15 or allow the emergency provisions to expire.

Dunleavy invited the Legislature to call itself into session, a move that requires 40 of 60 members to agree. This was an empty invitation.

It is almost impossible to get 40 legislators to agree on anything, which Stevens and Dunleavy understand.

The pro-Dunleavy contingent in the Legislature includes more than 20 members who are eager do his bidding, enough to block a special session.

House Speaker Bryce Edgmon and Senate President Cathy Giessel wrote to Dunleavy Monday suggesting that he lean on his legislative followers to support a session.

“We are highly confident you are aware of this dynamic, having routinely used it to obtain your objectives during the first two years of your administration to thwart veto overrides of your budget, among other procedural matters,” they said.

Or he can take the simple and sensible alternative and call the session on his own, limiting it to the disaster declaration, excluding such extraneous questions as paying an additional Permanent Fund Dividend.

“You have the express authority to limit the special session call to a single item, which we view as a critical element to successfully reconvening the Legislature,” they said.

It is important that both branches of government cooperate to create a workable emergency declaration, as Edgmon and Giessel explained. That will only happen if Dunleavy acts. What he should not do is pretend that if the emergency declaration expires, it is because of a legislative failure.

Among the provisions that expire in less than two weeks is one that allows the chief medical officer to issue standing orders for healthcare providers. There are many other important items that have to be clarified in the emergency declaration, such as unemployment payments and fixing problems in programs dispensing federal bailout money.

Dunleavy should have acted on this weeks ago.