The $1,200 per person cash resource rebate will be added to the amount of this year's permanent fund dividend, which the Department of Revenue will begin issuing as soon as possible. Department spokesman Jerry Burnett said check mailing and direct deposits could begin in mid-September.

Alaska's motor fuel taxes, ranging from 8 cents per gallon on highway fuels to 3.2 cents per gallon for jet fuel, will be shelved for one year beginning Sept. 1.

Legislative generosity did not extend to the governor's five-year, $669.9 million request for Alaska Gasline Inducement Act spending. Lawmakers approved just $30 million for reimbursement of expenditures by TransCanada Corp. under the terms of its AGIA license, plus $5.5 million to the Department of Natural Resources for license implementation.

The Legislature rejected not just the governor's request for the full $500 million reimbursement amount, which will be doled out over the next several years in any case, but also $129.9 million for AGIA-related highway upgrades, $25 million for Alaska Gas Pipeline Authority work on the Cook Inlet-northbound pipeline project and over $42 million in workforce training projects.

The Legislature also rejected a push by Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, to provide energy cost help for two winters. Lawmakers said the year limit on assistance would be sufficient to develop a long-term energy plan during the 2009 legislative session.

The time limit also increases expectations from Palin energy czar Steve Haagenson, whose proposal for a long-range state energy policy is due in December.

The funding requests should have been part of the administration's budget proposal for the fiscal year that began July 1, but will now wait for consideration during the 2009 legislative session, heads of the House and Senate Finance Committees said.

The resource rebate payment accounts for $746 million of the total $982 million spending package. Immediate energy-specific spending is only $23 million, to increase the electrical rate subsidy cap in the Power Cost Equalization program to $1 from 52.5 cents per kilowatt hour for the first 500 KWh of power used each month. Actual generation costs in dozens of villages in the PCE program are already well above the current cap.

The Alaska Village Electrical Cooperative, which manages generating costs for 53 villages, got a $20 million loan to help with what is expected to be a 50 percent increase in diesel heating fuel costs this winter. The bulk and bridge loan programs, for individual villages and those in smaller buying partnerships, got a combined $10.3 million increase in their loan funds and had their borrowing limits increased by $250,000 to $750,000.

By the final day of the special session, Aug. 7, neither the energy assistance bill, SB 4002, nor the appropriations measure to fund it, HB 4001, had passed.

Lawmakers didn't reach agreement on the elements of the package until late that afternoon after Hoffman and Senate Finance Co-chair Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, spent the day as shuttle diplomats, making three trips between their closed caucus meeting in Senate President Lyda Green's office and House Speaker John Harris' chambers.

The House convened shortly before 3 p.m. and passed the assistance bill, SB 4002, on a 35-5 vote. Fairbanks Rep. Mike Kelly cast the only Republican vote against the bill, joined by Democrats Sharon Cissna, Harry Crawford, Mike Doogan and Lindsey Holmes, all from Anchorage.

The bill the House passed included the four pieces of the assistance package, plus $50 million for AGIA spending, $25 million for Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Authority work on the northbound bullet pipeline from Cook Inlet proposed by the governor in July and $129 million in Dalton and other highway upgrades.

The Senate Finance Committee met at 4:19 p.m. and, over the objections of Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, eliminated the roadwork and ANGPA money and cut the AGIA spending to $30 million in HB 4001. It also added a special appropriation of $50 million to the new alternative energy grants fund that had gotten $50 million during the regular session.

The Senate floor session was on the verge of beginning just after 6 p.m., but was delayed until almost 8 p.m. as lawmakers huddled to decide whether to challenge the actions of the Senate Finance co-chairs.

The appropriations bill had to advance from second to third reading on the same day, which requires a three-quarter majority vote of the full 20-member Senate. Only 16 senators were present for the session, including Dyson and fellow Republican minority members Tom Wagoner and Con Bunde.

After their input was largely ignored throughout the year, the need for the supermajority vote gave them control of the bill's fate. They declined to use it.

With no debate the Senate first voted 11-5 to concur with the House amendments to SB 4002, the energy package. Casting the no votes were Sens. Lesil McGuire, Hollis French, Green, Stedman and Dyson.

After Stedman reviewed the provisions of HB 4001 Ellis moved to advance the bill to its final reading. Green asked for debate and was surprised when no amendments were offered and the chamber remained silent. “My goodness!” she said.

With the procedural hurdle ignored the bill passed on the same 11-5 vote and the Senate adjourned for the year a few minutes later. The House approved the Senate changes to its budget bill before its final adjournment at 9:40 p.m.