Alaska legislators have less than two weeks remaining to pass the budget and their other top priorities, with a constitutional May 20 end-of-session deadline fast approaching.

Leaders in both the Senate and House say a special session, focusing on the Alaska LNG project, is possible after the conclusion of the regular session. But lawmakers are still racing to pass dozens of priority bills that will expire in a matter of days.

With priorities such as education funding and criminal code reforms yet to be resolved, Senate President Gary Stevens and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon say they likely won't have time before May 20 to pass Gov. Mike Dunleavy's top priority: a measure facilitating tax breaks for the proposed natural gas pipeline.

"There doesn't seem to be any imminent pathways to getting a bill to the governor's desk during regular session, and it almost seems like a given that he would call us back in for a special session," Edgmon said.

When asked if Gov. Mike Dunleavy planned to call a special session, his spokesperson Jeff Turner said the executive branch isn't itching to extend the session to resolve the issue.

"Governor Dunleavy believes there is still time remaining in the session and encourages legislators to work together to get the bill across the finish line before adjournment," Turner said.

Since lawmakers began the two-year legislative cycle last year, they have introduced 683 bills and dozens of resolutions. With a deadline looming, lawmakers are in the final stretch of determining which to fast-track and which to let die at the end of the session.

Here's a look at several items remaining on the Legislature's to-do list:

Budget

The House and Senate are set to appoint a six-member committee in the coming days to negotiate the final draft of the operating budget, which funds agency operations, basic government services and the Permanent Fund dividend.

The conference committee, which will include members of both the majorities and minorities, will hammer out the differences between the House and Senate drafts. Negotiations on the final budget often last through the end of the session.

"There are enough projected revenues for both House and Senate priorities," said Rep. Andy Josephson, an Anchorage Democrat who oversaw the operating budget in the House, before urging his colleagues on Friday to vote against approving the Senate draft, paving the way for a conference committee to be appointed. The House voted unanimously against approving the Senate's proposed changes.

The largest differences between the budget drafts are the size of the Permanent Fund dividend and the amount of one-time funding for K-12 schools.

Contingent on oil prices exceeding the forecast in the current fiscal year, the Senate's version of the budget would send every eligible Alaskan a $1,150 cash payment, and allot a maximum of around $140 million in one-time funding to K-12 schools.

The House, meanwhile, voted earlier this year in favor of a $1,500 dividend and $158 million in school funding, regardless of oil prices.

Senate reductions were made in large part to balance the budget, avoiding the need for a draw from savings.

The Senate also reduced funding for several programs supported in the House, including $17 million for heating assistance, $15 million in state funds for higher Medicaid reimbursement rates for some healthcare workers, $7 million for childcare recruitment and retention, and $2 million for community jails, among other priorities.

The Senate instead diverted millions more in state funding toward community assistance, a program sharing state revenue with cities and boroughs. Senate leaders said the increase was needed to make up for higher fuel prices driven by the war in Iran.

"Energy relief is a massive issue," Edgmon said Thursday. In addition to community assistance, lawmakers are looking to increase the amount of money that the state can lend to communities to cover the cost of fuel.

The capital budget, which funds infrastructure construction and maintenance projects, was adopted by the House Finance Committee on Friday, positioning it for a vote on the House floor in the coming days. The bill seeks to send unexpected oil revenue to long-neglected school maintenance projects, which have borne the brunt of shrinking capital outlays in recent years.

Before it passed out of committee, Republicans unsuccessfully sought to reinstate funding authority for a controversial road project west of the Susitna River. The Dunleavy administration indicated it planned to spend roughly $90 million in federal transportation funds on the new road, intended to open access to a new mining area. But majority lawmakers are looking to instead ensure the federal dollars go to other transportation improvements, such as road safety projects in Anchorage.

Rep. Alyse Galvin, an Anchorage independent, said that she hoped that federal transportation dollars would go toward making state-owned roads in Anchorage — which have a disproportionate fatality rate — safer.

Rep. Will Stapp, a Fairbanks Republican, described the need for the West Susitna road project in urgent terms, given its implications for resource development.

"Otherwise, you might as well go back home and say, 'Get ready to move because Alaska is on the path to the ash heap of history,'" said Stapp.

Alaska LNG tax changes

After dozens of hearings, weeks of debate and multiple amendments on the proposed tax break for a natural gas pipeline that has been decades in the making, lawmakers and the governor still don't see eye-to-eye on how to move forward.

Dunleavy urged lawmakers to hasten passage of a bill he introduced that would give Glenfarne, the project's lead developer, a substantial property tax break. The governor introduced the legislation halfway through the session, calling it the most important bill of the legislative cycle.

The governor has criticized the tax rate changes proposed by the Senate and House Resources committees, made in substitute bills, as prohibitive to the project for taxing the pipeline at too-high rates. Dunleavy's proposal could cost the state close to $1 billion in property tax revenue annually.

But he has argued that it would enable a long-sought project that would bring in $26 billion over three decades in royalties, production taxes and other revenue.

Both substitute bills await final votes in committees. It's unclear which version, if any, will move forward by the end of the session.

Education funding

Education funding-related bills have taken center stage in previous legislative sessions, but the path for major policy or spending updates on K-12 schools appears unclear as the session nears conclusion, with several competing proposals on the line.

School funding advocates in the House began the session with a promise to again increase the Base Student Allocation, a formula used to determine per-school state funding that has stagnated during Dunleavy's tenure. But as the session progressed, lawmakers acknowledged that they lacked the political will to again override a governor's veto of education spending — as legislators did at the end of last year's session.

Without the support for a permanent funding increase, lawmakers turned to a slew of ideas for one-time funding, including budgeting specifically for school districts' utility bills. Those ideas, which differ in the House and Senate, are set to be part of lawmakers' budget endgame.

Regardless of the method, Sen. Jesse Kiehl, a Juneau Democrat and member of Finance and Education committees, said "the absolute highest priority is the money."

"The price to heat a school building has risen colossally. And if we don't provide some funding, they're gonna take it out (of somewhere), and the only place they can go is teachers, and that's not OK," Kiehl said.

A measure crafted by Senate Education Chair Löki Tobin, an Anchorage Democrat, and Sen. Rob Yundt, a Wasilla Republican, would send targeted education funding to education priorities that have bipartisan support, including career and technical education and reading improvement grants.

Another measure from House Rep. Andi Story, a Juneau Democrat, calls for changing the way school districts calculate their annual attendance figures — a change long sought by educators to provide earlier clarity on annual state funding.

With a plethora of education-related proposals and little time remaining, lawmakers are likely to use a method generally referred to as "bill-stuffing" to ensure multiple policies on the same subject can advance.

Omnibus crime bill

The Senate Judiciary Committee compiled an omnibus crime package that contains multiple bills and spans more than 50 pages in its current form, covering issues ranging from age of consent to airbag fraud.

The bill is set to come before its first Finance Committee hearing on Monday. Kiehl said there's "broad agreement" that the bill will move to the Senate floor.

Among the provisions included in the package is legislation that would raise Alaska's age of consent from 16 to 18. The bill's sponsor and advocates for survivors of sexual assault have urged lawmakers to move that measure independently, arguing that folding a widely supported bill into a larger crime package could jeopardize its chances of passing.

Other provisions in the omnibus bill would criminalize the use of artificial intelligence to generate child sexual abuse material, establish new standards for testing sexual assault kits and revise liability laws for fraudulent airbags.

The omnibus bill package is made up of multiple provisions added to one underlying bill. That bill — which would increase penalties for drivers who fail to assist in a fatal collision with a pedestrian — has already passed the House.

Using a House-passed bill as the vehicle hastens the process. If the bill passes the Senate, it would then go to a House concurrence vote, where lawmakers can either approve or reject the Senate changes but cannot amend the bill further.

Pension bill sitting on Dunleavy's desk

Majority legislators in the House and Senate celebrated last month when they achieved a long-sought goal: passing a bill to reinstate a defined benefit pension for the state's public sector, including teachers and public safety workers.

Edgmon said he believes it's a "seminal piece of legislation," in its aim to help the state recruit and retain employees.

But the fate of the pension bill won't be known until Dunleavy decides whether to veto the bill, sign it into law, or let it become law without his signature. His decision is due on May 18, potentially setting up another veto override vote in the final hours of the session.

A veto from the governor in the final days of the session — just as lawmakers are considering his priority gas line bill, and on the heels of Dunleavy's veto of a long-negotiated election reform bill — could set the tone for a bitter end to the last session with Dunleavy in the governor's mansion.

New revenue

Dunleavy began the session by introducing a fiscal plan that he said would solve the state's budget woes and protect future Permanent Fund dividend payments. But the bill, anchored by a new statewide sales tax, was quickly dismissed by lawmakers across the political spectrum.

Still, legislators in both the majority and minority caucuses have acknowledged that new revenue measures are likely in the state's future.

The Senate Resources Committee assembled a menu of possible revenue measures earlier in the session: reducing per-barrel tax credits for oil companies; applying the state's corporate income tax to privately held oil companies; extending the state's corporate income tax to online transactions; and implementing a new head tax on Alaska workers, among other provisions.

Though Dunleavy has repeatedly indicated he is opposed to stand-alone revenue measures, it is likely that revenue measures — even modest ones — will be part of lawmakers' last-minute efforts.

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(Iris Samuels reported from Anchorage, and Mari Kanagy reported from Juneau. Daily News reporter Alex DeMarban contributed from Anchorage.)

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