Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has asked House minority members not to show up for the first five days of an August special session, his spokesperson said Thursday, in order to thwart an effort by majority lawmakers to override Dunleavy’s veto of $51 million in education funding.

“Dunleavy asked House minority members to not show up for the first five days of session because like any governor, he does not want his vetoes overturned,” spokesperson Jeff Turner said in an email.

According to Alaska law, legislators must vote on overturning the governor’s vetoes within five days of convening.

In the span of a month, Dunleavy has vetoed$51 million in education operating funds; $25 million in school maintenance funds; $27 million in fire suppression funds; and $10 million in disaster relief funds. He has also vetoed bipartisan bills meant to improve transparency of oil and gas tax audits; ban predatory loans; and update school maintenance laws.

The House and Senate majorities had promised, in the wake of Dunleavy’s unprecedented veto of education funding from the state budget last month, that they would vote to override the governor when they convened in January. By calling a summer session, Dunleavy was counting on the absence of some lawmakers that could reduce the likelihood of a veto override’s success.

Overriding a budget veto requires support from 45 out of 60 lawmakers. When legislators successfully overrode Dunleavy’s veto of an education bill in May, they did so with support from 46 lawmakers.

At least one lawmaker — Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage — is expected to be absent in August because he is deployed to Europe with the National Guard. Other lawmakers were expected to be absent in early August due to a nationwide conference of state legislators, though those commitments could more easily be canceled.

By asking 19 House Republican minority members not to show up during the window in which lawmakers can override the governor, “legislators begin the session with a clean slate for conversations on public education reform policies,” Turner said.

Turner said Dunleavy is willing to reinstate the $51 million he had cut from the education operating budget in June “if he and lawmakers can reach an agreement on the education bill he will introduce next month.”

Legislators in the House and Senate majorities have broadly questioned Dunleavy’s education policy ideas, which in the past have included expansion of open enrollment policies, creating new ways to form charter schools and increasing state spending on homeschooling programs. Dunleavy did not immediately share the policies he planned to bring forward during the special session.

Dunleavy, who has not agreed to an interview with the Daily News since winning reelection in 2022, again declined an interview request Thursday.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, said that the governor’s request for House minority members not to attend a special session that the governor himself has called was “beyond words.”

“It’s a level of gamesmanship that is playing with the lives of Alaskans, and it’s stunning,” said Wielechowski.

Still, he planned to encourage his caucus to take up the effort to override the governor, even with at least one member missing. “If it goes down — then it goes down,” he said.

“When you’re elected to be a legislator, your job is to show up and cast votes, and oftentimes cast difficult votes. And if you don’t want to do that, then you should probably find another line of work,” said Wielechowski.

Of the 19 Republican House minority members, eight voted in May to override Dunleavy’s veto of an education bill that permanently increased the education funding formula. Educators hope those same members will oppose Dunleavy’s budget veto.

The eight include Rep. Jeremy Bynum, Ketchikan; Rep. Mia Costello, Anchorage; Rep. Julie Coulombe, Anchorage; Rep. Bill Elam, Soldotna; Rep. David Nelson, Anchorage; Rep. Justin Ruffridge, Soldotna; Rep. Dan Saddler, Eagle River; and Rep. Will Stapp, Fairbanks.

“I didn’t hear the governor ordering anyone to do anything specifically,” Bynum said Thursday, though he declined to discuss specifics of Dunleavy’s call with minority members.

Bynum indicated he planned to attend a special session if one were to occur.

“I think my district wants me to go do what I was elected to do, and that is to show up,” he said.

Bynum said his decision on whether to override the governor would depend on multiple factors, including whether lawmakers would seek to override all the budget vetoes Dunleavy made at once, or sequester their vote just to education funding.

“I believe that we should follow the statutory (education) formula,” Bynum said. “I don’t agree with the reduction of the $50.6 million from the appropriation into education.”

Bynum said he supports some education policy changes but thinks that should be “independent of the conversation about how we fund through the formula.”

“I’m not going to let those things get crossed up,” he said.

“I in no way relish the idea of having to deal with a veto override,” said Bynum. “I don’t like to have conflict with the governor. I want us to have a collaborative working relationship and not one of conflict. But I do understand that the Legislature has their voice and the administration has their voice.”

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