{"id":152,"date":"2026-05-20T04:09:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingtoalaskausa.com\/?p=152"},"modified":"2026-05-20T04:09:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:09:04","slug":"alaska-legislators-fail-to-override-governors-veto-of-public-pension-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingtoalaskausa.com\/?p=152","title":{"rendered":"Alaska legislators fail to override governor\u2019s veto of public pension bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Alaska\u2019s public employees and public school teachers will not have access to pensions this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more For Alaska\u2019s gubernatorial candidates, a sprint to find running mates<\/a><\/p>\n

In a 33-27 vote Tuesday, the Alaska Legislature failed to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy\u2019s veto of a bill that would have created a new pension system for teachers, municipal employees and state employees in Alaska. Forty votes were needed for an override.<\/span><\/p>\n

The failure was expected. Lawmakers had passed the pension bill, <\/span>House Bill 78<\/span>, by a combined vote total of 33-27 last month, and there was no sign that any legislator had changed his or her position since that vote.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alaska has been without a pension for new public employees since 2006, when lawmakers closed the existing pension plan to new applicants and mandated a 401(k)-style retirement system.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Though Dunleavy himself receives a public pension, he is opposed to opening a new system for current employees. In a <\/span>veto message to lawmakers<\/span> on Monday night, he expressed concerns about potential long-term costs and risks to the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPension obligations extend for decades, and the full cost of this bill may not be apparent until years after its enactment,\u201d his veto message stated in part.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the governor\u2019s concerns, he was willing to allow the bill to become law as part of a grand compromise: If legislators approved a gas pipeline tax relief bill he supports, he would not veto the bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

That arrangement <\/span>fell apart on Monday afternoon<\/span> after the House failed to advance the governor\u2019s preferred proposal. The governor issued his veto about 10:39 p.m. that night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the Alaska Legislature\u2019s current interpretation of the state constitution, lawmakers are required to meet in joint session within five days to consider a veto override.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under previous interpretations, legislators frequently skipped holding joint sessions if they either didn\u2019t want to discuss an override or knew they lacked the votes to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Tuesday afternoon, though legislators knew an override was not in the cards, advocates and opponents spoke for a combined two hours before the final vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Alaska Legislature votes to ban certain synthetic food dyes in school meals<\/a><\/p>\n

Rep. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage and the pension bill\u2019s most vocal proponent, said the bill is intended to reduce the amount of staff turnover in the state. While the bill was expected to cost $73 million per year to implement, Kopp expected it would save over $240 million in training costs for new employees and overtime needed to cover positions left vacant by staff who had resigned.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHouse Bill 78 is not a retirement bill. \u2026 It is a workforce bill, and it\u2019s a resource development bill. We cannot build a gasline through this state unless we can retain our engineers. We cannot permit a mine when the permitting office turns over in 18 months. We can\u2019t drill on the North Slope when the Haul Road isn\u2019t being maintained,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, gave a 25-minute speech rejecting Kopp\u2019s argument, saying in part that the lack of a pension system is not causing the vacancy problem. If the state\u2019s Supplemental Benefit System \u2014 not used by some municipalities \u2014 is included with the state\u2019s 401(k)-like public employee retirement system, Alaska has generous retirement benefits, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stedman suggested that higher salaries may be part of the answer to the state\u2019s vacancy issues. Alaska used to be No. 1 in the country for teacher salaries. It\u2019s now ranked below Washington state, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rep. Jeremy Bynum, R-Ketchikan, said that in his experience as an employer, higher salaries helped but weren\u2019t a complete solution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat still didn\u2019t solve the problem of retention, because people still cannot live in our communities affordably, so we\u2019ve got a lot of challenges ahead of us,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stedman also warned that the bill is based upon actuarial estimates that may or may not be accurate. The state\u2019s prior pension plan was left only partially funded because of an actuarial error that led to a years-long lawsuit and left a multibillion-dollar shortfall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sens. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, and Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, each suggested that the proof of the need for the bill is in the state\u2019s lived experience. Alaska has experienced <\/span>13 consecutive years<\/span> of negative migration, and state and municipal governments continue to struggle to fill positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis will make a tremendous difference if we override this veto and put back the option of a modest defined benefit pension for Alaska\u2019s public servants,\u201d Kiehl said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The legislature\u2019s regular session ends Wednesday night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Any new pension bill would have to restart from scratch in January, when the 35th Alaska Legislature convenes for its first year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Pipeline-for-pension deal falls apart as the Alaska Legislature\u2019s regular session nears end<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been 20 years since new public employees in Alaska, including teachers, could sign up for a pension plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nAlaska legislators fail to override governor\u2019s veto of public pension bill - Moving to Alaska<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingtoalaskausa.com\/?p=152\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alaska legislators fail to override governor\u2019s veto of public pension bill - Moving to Alaska\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s been 20 years since new public employees in Alaska, including teachers, could sign up for a pension plan.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movingtoalaskausa.com\/?p=152\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving to Alaska\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-20T04:09:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4a34ab8aa99bbfe6b285ea9b5fa35a5a\"},\"headline\":\"Alaska legislators fail to override governor\u2019s veto of public pension bill\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-20T04:09:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152\"},\"wordCount\":818,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/c31237ce9f07dff62a03c7b73894afcc.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152\",\"name\":\"Alaska legislators fail to override governor\u2019s veto of public pension bill - Moving to Alaska\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/c31237ce9f07dff62a03c7b73894afcc.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-20T04:09:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4a34ab8aa99bbfe6b285ea9b5fa35a5a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=152#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/c31237ce9f07dff62a03c7b73894afcc.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/c31237ce9f07dff62a03c7b73894afcc.jpg\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":1229,\"caption\":\"Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak (left) and Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, watch the voting board in the Alaska Legislature as lawmakers vote on a veto override Tuesday, May 19, 2026, for the pension bill, House Bill 78. 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