“Now the House majority has to go to the governor for every policy and say, ‘Is this good enough, governor? How should we vote on this today?’ I think that makes it very difficult, to cede legislative power to the governor and put everything in his hands,” said House minority leader Rep. Calvin Schrage, an Anchorage independent.

Rep. Thomas Baker is a Kotzebue Republican who was appointed by Dunleavy late last year to replace independent former lawmaker Josiah Patkotak, who was elected North Slope mayor. Baker said he met with Dunleavy “four or five times” last week. On Monday, he voted with most House Republicans to sustain Dunleavy’s veto.

“My goal is to make sure that we’re able to fund as much as possible for my district, for all districts in the state,” said Baker. Based on his discussions with members of Dunleavy’s administration, the governor was likely to veto the funding from the budget if the veto was overridden, he said.

“The reason I voted the way I did is because I’m looking at what’s best for my district and my people. There are other things going on outside of education, not to diminish the importance of education, but there are water and sewer projects that need to be funded in Kotzebue. There’s an MRI machine that needs to be funded in Utqiagvik,” said Baker. “I need to work with the governor, other legislators need to work with the governor … to make sure we can fund what needs to be funded.”

Last year, Dunleavy appeared to target lawmakers with vetoes of infrastructure projects in the districts of Republican House members who voted against the budget.

In Dunleavy’s last news conference, he urged lawmakers to move on to tackling other issues, and particularly to address Alaska’s energy supply.

Lawmakers said Monday that the education funding veto would make it difficult to focus on other priorities for the remainder of the session, expected to end in May, because education would likely continue to dominate conversations.

“It certainly sucks the air out of the room,” said Sen. Cathy Giessel, an Anchorage Republican, adding that the Senate Resources Committee was about to hear an update about a nuclear energy project. “How do we focus on that, and these very significant issues and budget issues related to education? Yeah, it’s going to be a challenge.”

Education is still the Senate majority’s top priority, said Stevens.

“We have to find a way to resolve this. We can’t leave here without education funding,” he said.

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(Reporter Sean Maguire reported from Juneau and Iris Samuels reported from Anchorage.)

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