Legislators' "to do" list grew four bills longer Wednesday as Gov. Frank Murkowski announced an extra load on the first day of a special session.
Lawmakers are now tasked with reviewing funding for a state virology laboratory, insurance regulations, a bill to add about 250,000 acres to a land grant for the University of Alaska and election reform legislation that possibly allows the flow of more soft money to political parties.
The Legislature has already been huddled into groups trying to pass the other three items requested by the governor for the special session announced Monday. The session began Wednesday.
Conference committees are ironing out differences over a workers' compensation reform bill, the state construction and maintenance budget and the plan to create private retirement accounts for future public employees.
The governor said he added the other bills to the list because he thought legislators were close to a consensus.
"We anticipated that they would have been passed last night (as the regular session closed) and we don't want to lose the opportunity that they would be considered by the Legislature," Murkowski said.
House Majority Leader John Coghill, R-North Pole, agreed, but said he believes there will be a lot of debate on the election bill - not a party issue for the House.
"There will be disagreements on both sides of the aisles," Coghill said.
House Bill 94 began as legislation to regulate voter qualifications, registrations, polling places and other procedures related to elections.
A Senate State Affairs Committee amended the bill to allow unlimited contributions from corporations to parties. The money cannot be directly used to fund individual campaigns, but it could free up hard money for those purposes.
Sen. Gene Therriault, R-North Pole, introduced the measure to help grass-roots parties grow. But many Democrats and Republicans in the House do not support the provision.
"I support full disclosure," Murkowski said. The contributions must be reported to the Alaska Public Offices Commission.
"Soft money and full disclosure are two different things," the governor said.
The university land grant, known as House Bill 130, would give the state university system 250,000 to 260,000 acres of state land scattered throughout Alaska.
Communities, particularly in Southeast Alaska, have objected to some of the offerings to be developed on the university's behalf. The House and Senate disagree on which lands should be donated.
• Andrew Petty can be reached at andrew.petty@juneauempire.com
