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Legislative leaders focused on the Permanent Fund dividend and taxes as they described the budget choices facing lawmakers trying to find a combination that will win enough political support to balance state spending. “The dividend has been the massive rock in the middle of the road,” making it difficult to find an affordable path to a long-term state fiscal plan, Anchorage Sen. Cathy Giessel, the Senate majority leader, said during an online discussion with Alaska Common Ground last week. “The dividend provides a lot of benefits to Alask...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy told legislators in a pair of closed-door meetings last week that he will introduce a state sales tax as a component of a budget-balancing, long-term fiscal plan. But with just three weeks left in the legislative session, with no details about the governor’s tax bill as of Monday, and with strong opposition from lawmakers who represent communities with a local sales tax, the odds of passage this year are extremely low. If the governor goes ahead with a sales tax bill, it would join more than a dozen proposals offered by H...
Alaska is 30 years into state budget deficits, borrowing billions from savings to pay the bills. Gov. Mike Dunleavy is five years into the job, still pledging mega Permanent Fund dividends even if the money isn’t there. Three months ago, Dunleavy in his State of the State address couldn’t even manage to acknowledge the need for a long-term fiscal plan, despite the budget math that adds up otherwise. Then the governor had an epiphany last week. Not a religious one, a fiscal one. He said the word “taxes.” Only he didn’t say it in public. That wou...
Alaskans who need cash quickly can go to a payday lender for a short-term loan of up to $500, handing over a check or access to their bank account to cover the entire loan repayment just as soon as they get paid at work or their pension arrives. But it will cost them plenty for that fast cash, as much as 15% interest on the debt every two weeks. A freshman Republican legislator from Anchorage wants to put an end to what he calls “these predatory loans.” Payday lenders “take advantage of the dire situations of individuals,” said Rep. Stanley...
Rather than requiring a specific course in financial literacy for high school graduation, lawmakers have amended the legislation so that school districts could incorporate the same information into one or more classes as long as the material is covered. The amended Senate bill would require school districts to teach students how to open and manage an account at a financial institution, prepare a budget and manage debt and credit cards. It also would require districts to teach students about loans, insurance, taxes, financial fraud, retirement...
Legislation that could boost state funding to assist more low-income Alaskans needing help with civil law issues has advanced through its second state Senate committee and is waiting for a vote by the full chamber. The measure would more than double a source of state funding that could be directed each year to the Alaska Legal Services Corp., a 56-year-old nonprofit legal aid organization that helps several thousand Alaskans a year with domestic violence, family law, housing, elder advocacy and other cases. “They provide absolutely critical l...
The state should change its tax code to increase corporate income tax collections from out-of-state businesses that sell goods or services to Alaskans, particularly digitized services, according to a legislator promoting the revisions. “The world has changed,” said Anchorage Sen. Bill Wielechowski. “We’re no longer bricks and mortar.” His legislation would amend Alaska’s income tax code to ensure that online and digital sales are included in calculating how much of a company’s U.S. profit was made in Alaska and should be subject to corporate...
Wrangell’s annual community cleanup is planned for April 29, with free lunch, free trash bags, free disposable gloves, and cash prizes for volunteer picker-uppers. And while organizers hope the incentives will get people to turn out, the real prize is a cleaner community. “Trash is expensive,” said one of the organizers, Kim Wickman, of WCA. It’s expensive to buy the goods, which are shipped into Wrangell, it’s costly to send the trash out to a landfill in Washington state, and it’s unsightly when the garbage litters the town. She hopes peopl...
When I was a kid, I suppose my role models were mostly professional athletes. Sports was everything (no offense to school or my parents or Boy Scouts leader). Though I never was very good at any of them, particularly sports or school or being an obedient kid. I managed just one scouting merit badge — in stamp collecting. I did much better imagining myself as the star pitcher, throwing the ball against the side of the house every evening as if it were the perfect strikeout pitch in the big game — until my dad yelled at me to stop thumping the...
The Wrangell School District would receive an additional $425,000 in one-year state money under a budget headed toward approval in the Alaska House, falling short of a permanent increase in the education funding formula sought by school districts statewide. Under the House budget, state funding for K-12 public education would increase by about 14% for the 2023-2024 school year. The state’s foundation funding, based on enrollment, covers about 60% of the Wrangell district’s total general fund budget. The Republican-led House majority str...
The state has embarked on a mandatory income eligibility review of about 150,000 households receiving Medicaid benefits — covering as many as 260,000 people, more than one in three Alaskans. Nearly 500 Wrangell households could be in that stack. That represents about half of all the households in the community of just under 2,100 residents. The Alaska Department of Health reported an average monthly caseload of 476 Wrangell households enrolled in Medicaid in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2022. The program provides health care coverage f...
There is no wisdom in the state House majority’s decision to put Permanent Fund dividends ahead of the public education budget. Paying for larger PFDs before schools is not the way to build a better state, to keep families from leaving, to entice new residents and businesses to move here, to educate children. It does nothing to address the fact that more people have left Alaska than moved here in each of the past 10 years. It’s as if the legislators want a new state motto: “Give me liberty, or give me death, but give me my dividend eithe...
Pointing to high credit card balances, growing student loan debts and inadequate savings for many U.S. households, Anchorage Sen. Bill Wielechowski believes it is important to teach students “to avoid common financial pitfalls and manage their money successfully.” He has proposed legislation that would require Alaska high schools to teach a financial literacy course. His bill also would require that students complete the course to earn their diploma. The course would have to cover managing a bank account, setting a budget, credit card deb...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has reduced this year’s non-hatchery chinook catch limit for Southeast commercial trollers by 44,000 fish — about 23% lower than last year’s harvest quota. The catch limit for sportfishing, commercial seine and gillnet fleets also were set about 23% lower than last year. The largest salmon are the main moneymaker for many trollers. This year’s harvest limit, while down substantially from 2022, is about the same as was set for 2021 and 2020. It’s almost 50% higher than 2019, when several runs were not...
For the third time in as many legislative sessions, Kodiak Sen. Gary Stevens is leading the push to get a tax on e-cigarettes and vaping products into state law. “Taxes have been proven to reduce youth tobacco use, resulting in fewer kids becoming life-long smokers,” Stevens said in offering his legislation, which would add a 25% state tax to the sales price to dissuade youth from vaping. Senate Bill 89 also would raise the legal age to buy vape sticks, electronic smoking devices and other similar nicotine products in Alaska to 21, mat...
The state now plans to spend an estimated $8 million to replace wasted steel on the ferry Matanuska. If the repairs can be completed in time, the ship could be available by late summer or early fall if it is needed to fill in on Southeast routes. The work at the Vigor shipyard in Ketchikan had not started as of March 28, although the Alaska Marine Highway System’s timeline presented to legislators that day showed the Matanuska work was to have started in March. A much larger, $37.5 million project of safety and environmental upgrades to the 6...
The opportunity for free recycling of old cars and trucks, metal roofing and shelving, major appliances and anything else made of metal will end Sunday. Juneau-based Channel Construction, which is operating under a short-term lease at the borough-owned former sawmill property at 6.3-Mile Zimovia Highway, will stop accepting scrap metal as it gets ready to pile up its barge with the last pieces of scrap metal and ship the load for recycling out of state. The company will continue to accept cars, trucks and other metal at no charge 8 a.m. to 5 p....
Three-term Nikiski Rep. Ben Carpenter is right, the state needs a sustainable, long-term fiscal plan. Give him credit for raising the issue. Talk of a balanced fiscal plan has lingered since 1990 — before several of today’s legislators were even born. The discussion about diversifying Alaska’s economy has lasted even longer, ever since the first oil started flowing from Prudhoe Bay in 1977 and we tried using the riches to expand the state’s economy and job opportunities beyond crude. But unless new business activity produces oil, any new indust...
A state senator wants to direct a larger share of filing fees paid to the court system toward a nonprofit legal aid organization that helps several thousand Alaskans a year with their domestic violence, family law, housing, elder advocacy and other cases. The 56-year-old Alaska Legal Services Corp. “is part of our social safety net,” helping the most vulnerable community members, particularly survivors of domestic violence, said Anchorage Sen. Forrest Dunbar, sponsor of the legislation. Senate Bill 104 would amend state law to direct up to 25%...
Almost 33,000 visitors are expected to step off a ship or a plane this summer in Wrangell — more than in any year since 2005. But continuing that growth and building up the town’s tourism economy will require more side excursions and other attractions for cruise ship passengers and more overnight accommodations for independent travelers. The community makes its money — jobs and taxes — when tourists find goods or services to buy in town. “The visitor sector will need to make sure it has the capacity to provide sufficient tours to visiting...
It’s embarrassing that it took billions of dollars in losses for some legislators to acknowledge that the state’s fiscal house is leaking worse than a broken downspout on a Southeast Alaska roof. It’s too bad Gov. Mike Dunleavy acts like he has barely noticed the growing pool of mud at his feet. Start with the Permanent Fund, which generates investment earnings that have become the largest single source of revenue in the state budget. Last year was painful for most every investor, and Alaska was not immune to the downturn. The fund dropp...
Similar pieces of legislation to increase state funding for public schools are awaiting hearings in the House and Senate finance committees as lawmakers face a mid-May adjournment deadline and school districts make spending plans for the 2023-2024 school year. The House bill, which was amended and moved out of the Education Committee on March 22, would increase the funding formula by a little over 11% in the first year and 2% in the second year, about half of the bill sponsor’s original proposal. The Senate version, which moved out of its E...
Adding to the millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief aid already provided to the borough, Wrangell has been notified that $1.23 million more is on its way in a final round of assistance. The community can use the money for pretty much anything that benefits its residents. It will be up to the borough assembly to appropriate the money. Borough Manager Jeff Good said he expects the assembly at its March 28 meeting will discuss the possibility of putting the money toward constructing a new pipeline to move water from the upper reservoir...
After years of legislative debate over the size of the Permanent Fund dividend, reasonable voices are starting to grow louder, maybe even hopefully strong enough to outvote the irresponsible catcalls for an unaffordable dividend. It’s a welcome change. A bill in the House would restore dividend sanity by setting the free-money check at a percentage of the annual draw of Permanent Fund earnings, producing about a $1,300 PFD this year and growing from there. That would be about equal to the average dividend of the past decade, before the e...
The Alaska Marine Highway System is short more than 100 new crew to safely and dependably put the Kennicott to sea. Without enough onboard workers, the state ferry system will start the summer schedule in six weeks with its second-largest operable ship tied up for lack of crew. Though management has said they could put the Kennicott into service if they can hire enough new employees, filling all the vacancies would represent more than a 20% gain in current ferry system crew numbers, setting a very high hurdle to untie the ship this summer. The...