ABSTRACT
Each of the first four legislative sessions of the new State has exhibited a different character as it faced life. The first session of the first State Legislature convened on January 26, 1959, in a general atmosphere of "singing spirits" and confidence as Alaska boldly stepped into a new era. State finances and budgets were matters of no great concern, for Alaska started its new career with some comfortably large nest eggs in its treasury, acquired during the last prosperous years of its long period as a postulant territory, the assurance of five years of generous (but declining) federal grants to aid in the transitional process, and the prospects of a growing oil and gas boom. Accordingly the first session, unhampered by any sense of budgetary pressures, turned its attention to organizing the new state government and most of its energies to resuming a protracted and multi-cornered battle over rival plans for reorganizing the employment security program.
