Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 164
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...
With four weeks left before the May 17 adjournment deadline, legislators are focusing on the state budget and how to resolve big differences between the House and Senate over school funding and the amount of this year’s Permanent Fund dividend. The House approved its version of the budget on Monday, sending it to the Senate for certain changes. And while the major disputes are over how much to spend on education and dividends, and how to pay for the spending this year, many lawmakers also are kicking around ideas to generate new revenues in t...
Ketchikan, her close community neighbors and all of Southeast Alaska are in danger. We are at risk of losing our Alaska Marine Highway System ferry run to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, permanently. Ferry service to Prince Rupert is vital. It is the only way we can reach the mainland quickly at a reasonable cost. Prince Rupert is less than a seven-hour trip from Ketchikan versus a 44-hour trip to Bellingham, Washington. The one-way fare to Prince Rupert is approximately $400 for a Subaru, driver, one passenger and a dog, while the fare for...
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 Alaska House of Representatives could vote this week or next on a bill that would block a 67% pay raise for state legislators and a 20% raise for the governor and top members of the executive branch. Passage of the bill is anticipated — multiple members of the House Republican-led majority coalition and Democratic-led minority have already expressed their support of the idea — but leading members of the Senate said the idea is dead on arrival when it crosses the building and arrives in their chamber. Under state law, the raises will go ahe... Full story
The Alaska House advanced a targeted spending bill March 22, intended to address the state’s unprecedented backlog of unanswered applications for food stamp benefits and a shortage of public defenders in criminal cases. The budget bill is being fast-tracked through the Legislature so that the money can be made available quickly. It contains provisions to draw from the $2.3 billion Constitutional Budget Reserve — the state’s main savings account — to spend a maximum of $115 million for unanticipated spending needs for the fiscal year that en...
Just eight weeks before the start of the summer timetable on May 1, the Alaska Marine Highway System released its schedule and opened its online reservations system for bookings. The schedule, which was announced March 7, came later than usual this year as the state continues to wrestle with crew shortages that will keep a couple of ships tied to the dock for the summer. Wrangell will see a weekly ferry stop in each direction May through September. “The Kennicott and Tazlina will be off-line for the time being due to skilled crew shortages, b...
Alaska’s 401(k)-style retirement system for new employees is providing significantly smaller benefits than the pension-style retirement system discontinued for new hires in 2006, according to an analysis from the state Division of Retirement and Benefits. The analysis, presented Feb. 23 to the Senate Finance Committee, comes as legislators are considering whether to revive a pension system for new employees as a way to encourage hiring. Almost one in six state government jobs were vacant in December, according to the governor’s Office of Man... Full story
Bills under consideration in the Legislature to cap state spending are not addressing the main challenges Alaska is facing, said Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee. “We don’t have a spending-side problem; we have a revenue-side problem,” said Stedman, who also represents Wrangell and the rest of Southeast except for Juneau, Haines, Skagway and Gustavus. He is in his 20th year in the Legislature. The senator pointed out that the latest spending-cap proposal advanced by an Anchorage Republican would exclude the P...
In a change of plans from just a few weeks ago, the Alaska Marine Highway System reports it lacks enough crew to operate the Kennicott this summer. The loss of the Kennicott from the schedule likely would mean dropping service to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and the loss of two additional port calls in Wrangell each month, May through September. It also could jeopardize state ferry service to Yakutat on the cross-gulf route, and abandoning plans to run the Kennicott to Bellingham, Washington, once a month to help move the heavy load of summ...
Wrangell is fortunate its two state legislators know that a good education pays years more dividends for Alaskans than the short-term gain a larger PFD provides. They are on the long-term, good-thinking side of what is shaping up as a monumental debate this year embroiling lawmakers and the governor: The more the state spends on the Permanent Fund dividend, the less money is left in the treasury to help schools. Rep. Dan Ortiz and Sen. Bert Stedman between them have more than 25 years of legislative service. They have heard all the arguments...
Alaska oil production and prices are below last year’s estimates, and the state could run out of money before the end of the fiscal year in June, members of the Senate Finance Committee were told Feb. 21. “It’s a bit of a nail-biter,” said Neil Steininger, director of the Office of Management and Budget. While the prospect may sound alarming, it’s not as bad as it sounds, said Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chair of the Finance Committee. “There’s nothing to worry about,” Stedman said. The state’s fiscal year doesn’t end until June 30, and legisl... Full story
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s amended budget unveiled Feb. 15 attempts to address crisis areas in state public services, with the additional spending driving the anticipated budget deficit past $400 million. The proposed budget for the next fiscal year is updated from his initial proposed budget announced in December. At that time, Dunleavy’s largely flat spending proposal for services had a $322 million deficit. The largest single expense in the governor’s proposed budget is $2.5 billion for a Permanent Fund dividend at roughly $3,900 per person this...
More than 90,000 pounds of canned Alaska pink salmon purchased and donated by the state of Alaska is being distributed as wartime relief in Ukraine. The cans were donated to the nonprofit World Central Kitchen and arrived in Ukraine this month after months of shipping and customs delays. The food is the state’s biggest contribution to Ukraine’s defense against a Russian invasion that started a year ago. Other than appropriating money last year to buy the canned salmon, the war has remained a back-burner issue in the state Capitol. No Ukr... Full story
A proposal to boost state funding for public schools by about 17%, increasing the current $5,960 per-student formula by $1,000, was unveiled Feb. 1 by state Senate leaders as the “beginning of the beginning” of a long debate about the future of education spending in the state. Increasing what’s known as the base student allocation is the top priority of some legislators this session — the per-student funding amount is essentially unchanged since 2017, while inflation has risen about 21% since then. Senate Bill 52 contains no provisions address...
Getting caught between a rock and a hard place is easier. At least you can rent a backhoe and move the rock. Getting politically caught between more money for public schools and even more money for the Permanent Fund dividend will be the hardest place for legislators this year. The vote will come down to which is more important for Alaska: A long-needed, substantial increase in state funding for public schools, or the governor’s proposed supersized Happy Meal of a nearly $4,000 Permanent Fund dividend? But putting the dividend first and school...
JUNEAU — Amid a deepening crisis in recruiting and keeping state workers, the Alaska Legislature is again considering measures to recreate a pension plan for public employees, but disagreements on the type and extent of the plan mean a long path ahead. A deficit of billions of dollars led lawmakers in 2006 to do away with the state’s defined-benefits plans, which gave state and municipal employees a dependable pension calculated on their years of service and average salary, not reliant on the ups and downs of the stock market. Instead, the stat...
In his annual address to the Alaska Legislature, Gov. Mike Dunleavy identified successes from his first four-year term in office and called for action on a list of administration priorities, including more funding for a “statehood defense” program that has launched a series of lawsuits against the federal government. Speaking Jan. 23 at the Capitol in Juneau, the governor also said he would work with state legislators to make Alaska “the most pro-life state in the entire country.” Doing so, he said, would require affordable housing, improve... Full story
Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, says Gov. Dunleavy’s proposed $3,800 Permanent Fund dividend in 2023 would mean “starting the year underwater.” “It’s not a prudent way to administer the state’s financial resources.” Stedman said, reacting to his first review of Dunleavy’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. “Revenues would not meet recurring expenditures. We’d be talking about going into the hole by about $300 million.” Stedman was reelected Nov. 8 to a sixth term in the Senate representing s...
A House-Senate committee of the Alaska Legislature has approved spending $6.6 million to renovate a downtown Juneau office building into 33 apartments for legislators and staff. During a Dec. 19 vote on the proposal, lawmakers said the state-owned building will help alleviate a chronic shortage of housing in the capital city during the legislative session. “One of the biggest challenges we have is housing,” said Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman. “I think this is the right move,” he said. The cost of construction is also being subsidized by a Juneau-base... Full story
Gov. Mike Dunleavy introduced a first-draft $7.3 billion state budget last week, meeting a legally required deadline but acknowledging that the spending plan is likely to change significantly as the administration negotiates with lawmakers in the upcoming legislative session. “This budget that we’re submitting, as always, is a talking point with the Legislature,” Dunleavy said. “It also reflects values, what our revenue picture looks like, and where we’re headed.” The biggest single expense in the entire proposed state budget is $2.5 billio... Full story
Seventeen of Alaska’s 20 state senators and senator-elects have banded together to form a bipartisan majority coalition that members promise will be moderate and consensus-focused. Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican and veteran lawmaker known as a moderate, will be president, returning to the role he held from 2009 to 2012. “It’s a pleasure for me to announce that we have a very healthy majority and we’ve found a way to share responsibilities between all of us,” Stevens said at an Anchorage news conference late Friday. Cathy Giessel, a Republica... Full story
School districts statewide, including Wrangell, will be looking to the Legislature next year for an increase in state funding, but any boost in the state’s per-pupil formula likely will depend in large part on oil revenues and also Permanent Fund earnings. And neither looks good this month, less than eight weeks before lawmakers are scheduled to convene in Juneau. The state funding formula for K-12 education hadn’t moved in about five years before this year’s 0.5% mini-nudge upward. Meanwhile, districts statewide are facing budget defic...
The numbers are not final — that will not happen until the last votes are tallied and ranked-choice tabulations kick in Nov. 23 — but it appears that incumbent elected officials representing Alaska, and Wrangell, will stay on the job for another term. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, state Sen. Bert Stedman and state Rep. Dan Ortiz all appear headed toward re-election. And while the outcomes are not surprising, what’s interesting is to look at how Wrangell voted the same, or differently, than other preci...
Wrangell voters cast their ballots to re-elect Gov. Mike Dunleavy and to toss out congressional incumbents Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Mary Peltola. While a majority of Alaskans also voted for Dunleavy, though by a slightly smaller margin than in Wrangell, the statewide count gives Murkowski and Peltola solid odds to re-election. The Alaska Division of Elections will announce final vote counts and ranked-choice voting results on Nov. 23. Statewide, as of Monday, Dunleavy was ahead of challengers former Anchorage Democratic state Rep. Les Gara...