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Welcome to my last Peggy’s Corner for the 2014 session. We have worked diligently in both houses of the Legislature on many pieces of legislation that will affect our state for many years. Throughout the process this year we have been trying to keep our eye to Alaska’s future. State employees will be happy to learn that the legislature put in place a long term plan to pay down the unfunded liability in the PERS/TRS retirement systems. $2 billion will be moved from our constitutional budget reser...
Hello and welcome to week twelve of Peggy’s Corner of the House. I am pleased to report that the House Resources Committee, of which I am vice-chair, unanimously moved SB 138 onto the next committee. SB 138 is the Governor’s bill that will authorize the administration to continue negotiations on firm contracts for the development of a natural gas pipeline. Following almost a week of very detailed discussions on amendments, I believe a much better bill has moved forward. The House Finance Committee has now taken up the bill for further eva...
By Representative Peggy Wilson Hello and welcome to week eleven of Peggy’s Corner of the House. If you are following the legislature at any level right now you will see that bills are moving rapidly as much of the behind the scenes work and committee deliberations have been completed. Committee meetings have expanded hours and weekend meetings are regularly happening to be sure that everyone has adequate information on all of the matters before us. This is in addition to the major session issues such as education, gasline, omnibus crime b...
Hello and welcome to week ten of Peggy’s Corner of the House. Every year I look forward to the House Majority poll on issues pertinent to Alaskans. I was personally very pleased to see that the majority of the public opinion indicates that both sides of the Legislature are on the right track. There were, of course, many questions in the survey dealing with all kinds of issues that the Legislature is working on that will affect all of us. I also know that it is important for those of us in rural and Southeast Alaska to always take these r...
Hello and welcome to week nine of Peggy’s Corner of the House. Although the deadline has passed for all personal legislation to be introduced, committees still have the ability to introduce legislation that is specific to a committee. This has happened in my Transportation Committee. The Department of Administration, that oversees the Department of Motor Vehicles, (DMV) has asked that we carry HB 378 which relates to keeping Alaska compliant with federal regulations pertaining to our commercial driver license (CDL) program. This bill is i...
Hello everyone! Welcome to week eight of our Legislative Session. We have entered the downside of the session so, as in past years, the pace has quickened and night meetings will continue to happen more and more in order for us to get all of the work done in the allotted 90 days. I am excited to report that this past week my House Joint Resolution 10 (HJR10) passed from the House over to the Senate. For the past five years I have been advocating for an Alaska Transportation Infrastructure Fund (ATIF). In Fiscal Year 2014, 79 percent of...
The past couple of weeks we have had alternating views of what is happening in Washington DC – House leadership spent time with Senator Murkowski. She spoke of one of the primary issues we continue to fight as a state – federal over-reach on our lands, waters and resources. She is also working very hard to ensure Alaska is represented in all Arctic discussions. Senator Begich was also here this past week and provided his outlook on education, taxes and health issues. Several legislators headed back to Washington DC this past week to attend Ene...
By Representative Peggy Wilson Hello and welcome to Peggy’s Corner of the House. It was great to be able to get to Ketchikan to meet with folks. It did my heart good! The sunshine that Ketchikan enjoyed followed me to Juneau and now I’m enjoying it again. This week at the Capitol has been like old home week. I had constituents drop in from Coffman Cove, City of Ketchikan, City of Saxman, Ketchikan Gateway Borough and Thorne Bay. Additionally several other business folks made the effort to come to Juneau to provide me with their perspective on...
Hello and welcome to Peggy’s Corner of the House. This week I’d like to review a few of the many education bills that are making their way through the Legislature. In the House Education Committee we are continuing an in-depth review of the Governor’s omnibus education bill HB 278. Last week there was attention given to the three sections that included increasing the stipend for boarding school students, repealing the high school exit exam, and technical-vocational educational programs. This week we focused on the education tax credit secti...
Welcome to my last Peggy’s Corner for the 2013 session. We have worked diligently in both houses of the Legislature on many pieces of legislation that will affect our state for many years. Throughout the process this year we have been trying to keep our eye to Alaska’s future. We all knew that if we didn’t manage to do something about our oil decline, we would be committing the ultimate crime against the next generation, our children. The cost of doing nothing was simply too great. We need oil production to increase, otherwise, it won’t...
Welcome to this week of Peggy’s Corner of the House. We have entered our last week of the 90 day session so as you can imagine the pace has quickened in order to try to complete the states’ business in our allotted time. We will often work late into the night from now until the end. For the past four years I have been advocating for an Alaska Transportation Infrastructure Fund (ATIF). In FY14 79% of our transportation budget will come from the federal government – this is down from 84% in FY10. We currently have a 20 billion dollar backl...
Welcome to this week of Peggy’s Corner of the House. Several Ketchikan and Wrangell constituents stopped through my office this past week and I appreciate the time that you all take to give me your insight. As you have most likely seen in the news, the Legislature has many bills being heard in committee that pertain to education in Alaska. The bill that I introduced (HB 21) for a 4 day pilot program is currently in the Finance committee. 4-day school weeks have been around for many years in other states and have a proven track record of i...
Hello and welcome back to Peggy’s Corner of the House! The House passed the state-operating budget after vigorous debate this past week. There has been tremendous work done on the budget since session started -many long days and nights have been spent trying to accomplish this in the very short time period that we are allotted. I actually wish we were back to a 120-day session. Over the last ten years, the General Fund (GF) portion of the departments’ operating budgets has grown an average of...
This last week the House passed HB 52 that helps to address residency issues that have come up in regards to the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend. We hope to correct an unintended consequence from prior legislation that disallows our service men and women from being equally eligible for the PFD as our members of Congress. Once an Alaskan chooses to serve in the military, and is sworn into service, they do not have the option to choose to be physically present in Alaska. This bill will bring...
Hello again from Juneau. We have completed the first thirty days of this session. We have all dug in and are working very hard. With significantly lower projections for oil prices and production, our state is confronting its first budget deficit in many years, and the need to constrain spending is very clear. There is a growing sense of urgency at the legislature this session, and we will face one tough decision after another as we build and review the budgets for the coming fiscal year and beyond. Many worthy programs and projects across the s...
By Representative Peggy Wilson Hello again from Juneau. Another busy week has passed and my staff and I are settled into a routine or as close to a routine as is possible in Juneau. We are charging forward in the Resources Committee with a lot to accomplish this session. This week we have been thoroughly reviewing legislation that is designed to expedite the construction of an in-state natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to consumers in the rail belt region and to a saltwater terminal. We...
Hello and welcome to week three of Peggy’s Corner of the House. I introduced a Legislative citation this week designating February as American Heart Month in Alaska. This also recognizes the American Heart Association and their efforts in reducing cardiovascular disease in Alaska. This year the AMA is focusing on encouraging citizens and especially women to recognize the warning signs of a heart attack or stroke. The Resource Committee has been very busy this week. HB 80, Governor Parnell’s bil...
Hello and welcome to week two of Peggy’s Corner of the House. This has been a busy week with the beginning of the Session, startup of Committees and a high volume of visitors through my office. We have quite a few new faces here in Juneau and the energy level is very high. We all realize that the decisions being made this session will affect our state for a very long time to come. As many of you may have seen in the news or on the Legislative site, there has been a flurry of bills introduced by the Governors’ Office, Senators and Rep...
Hello and welcome to Peggy’s Corner of the House. I’m excited to be back in Juneau representing our new District 33 in the State House. This is my third year serving as House Majority Whip. Through this leadership position, I assist the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader to coordinate ideas and garner support for proposed legislation, and whatever other help they may need. If the majority leader is absent I fill in for him in the House Chambers – I once even filled in for the Speak...
by Representative Peggy Wilson Hello again. After a short break to visit family, I wanted to report, from my Corner of the House, on all the latest news. Between budgets, a special session, and redistricting, there’s a lot going on. The best news is how well the Capital Budget came out. Because the legislature worked so carefully with the governor to keep expenditures at a reasonable level, there were very few vetoes. All the projects that are so critically needed in our District 2 c...
by Representative Peggy Wilson Hello once more from Alaska’s capitol. Well, the 90 day session Legislature came to an end shortly after midnight on Sunday. It was a mad dash the last few days, with dozens of bills being passed in both bodies after weeks of deliberation in committees. There was also a rush of creative bill drafting during the last half day that helped both bodies pass some important legislation. One of the great things about working on the budgets this year is that for every doll...
Hello again from Juneau. We’re down to crunch time now, with the major focus being on the budgets, education funding, and oil taxes. The House is now primarily hearing Senate bills. The Senate is doing the same, by hearing House bills during the last week and a half of the session. There will be hundreds of bills that will die at the end of this session. Less than ten bills have passed both houses. The Senate passed their version of the Operating Budget, changing the House version in hundreds o...
Hello again from the Legislature. Now that we’re down to the last two weeks of session, the pace is really picking up and the hours getting longer. I was very pleased that my resolution to recreate the state’s dedicated transportation fund received approval of the House on Friday. House Joint Resolution 4 would put a constitutional amendment before the voters in November to amend the Alaska Constitution - reinstating a dedicated Alaska Transportation Infrastructure Fund (ATIF). As the state’s po...
by Representative Peggy Wilson Hello again from Juneau. By the time you read this report we’ll be entering the last 22 days of the session, during which we will be focusing on passage of the bills that we really feel are the most important. The House has passed the Operating Budget, which is our only constitutional duty. Now we’re waiting for the Senate to share the Capital Budget with us, so that we can carefully review and hopefully add to it before adjournment. There’s been a lot of discu...
Hello again from the capital. This week we passed the mid-point for this year’s legislative session, so we’re on the downhill slide for the end of the session – with a lot of work yet to be done. Friday was another good day for my office. House Bill 216 passed the House unanimously. It will greatly improve understanding of the regulation process for the public as well as legislators. All departments will be required to write a brief descriptive summary, in easy to understand English, of every...