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Sitka will see minimal state ferry service this winter. Scheduled sailings of the Matanuska have been canceled until late January while the vessel undergoes more steel plate repairs in a Ketchikan shipyard, leaving Sitka cut off from the ferry network for more than a month. As a stopgap measure, the Alaska Marine Highway System ran the Kennicott into Sitka on Dec. 8, but the vessel is not scheduled to return until Jan. 11. The 58-year-old Matanuska is not expected to resume service until the fourth week in January, With the ferry system...
A divided Alaska Redistricting Board voted last week on a final map that could give one of the more conservative areas of the state, Eagle River, a second seat in the state Senate. All three board members appointed by Republican elected officials supported the map. The two who were not appointed by Republicans opposed the map. In addition to redrawing the boundaries for the state’s 40 House seats, the board had to decide the pairings of two House districts each to create 20 Senate seats. It was those Senate district boundaries that prompted l...
The Alaska Redistricting Board has adopted a new map of legislative districts for the state, keeping Wrangell and Ketchikan in the same district. The board had considered other proposals that would have put Wrangell in with Sitka, not Ketchikan, along with Petersburg and other small Southeast communities, or moved Petersburg in with Ketchikan and Wrangell. Wrangell and Ketchikan currently share a state House district. The only change from the current boundaries for that seat is the addition of Metlakatla, to get the district closer to the popul...
The state House has approved a Permanent Fund dividend of about $1,100 this fall, but even if the Senate agrees and the governor signs the appropriations bill, it is too late to avoid a delay in sending out the payment to Alaskans. Full approval was needed by Tuesday if the state were to meet its traditional date of issuing the annual PFD by the first week of October, according to a Department of Revenue spokesperson, who added that the dividends could be issued about 30 days after elected officials settle on the amount. The House passed the...
As legislators meet in special session this week, Gov. Mike Dunleavy continues to push his plan for much larger Permanent Fund dividends, saying “cash is the ultimate program” to help Alaskans. “Cash in the form of the Permanent Fund dividend … is really the answer to helping Alaskans and our private economy,” the governor said in a prepared statement Monday, the day lawmakers went back to work in Juneau. While promoting his plan to pay dividends almost double the average of the past 10 years without any new revenues to cover the state spe...
The 2,700-page, trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that passed the U.S. Senate on Tuesday could provide tens of millions of dollars, maybe more, to help the ailing Alaska Marine Highway System. How to use the money - assuming Congress approves the final package later this year, which is far from certain - would be decided by the governor and Alaska legislators next year. "We can't allow it to be a total replacement of the state's responsibilities," Robert Venables, executive director of the Sou...
Some of the key players in legislative efforts to reach a compromise on a long-term fiscal plan for the state — in addition to settling on an amount for this fall’s Permanent Fund dividend — say growing regional, political and economic differences, plus a large number of first-term legislators, make the effort harder. “To find a common ground means people have to give up something,” said Anchorage Sen. Natasha von Imhof. That compromise of spending versus revenues versus dividends has to add up to a solution that balances the checkbook...
A budget debate has brought the state to within a week of the start of the new fiscal year and the risk that state agencies could close on July 1 if the governor and legislators cannot settle the dispute. The battle between the governor and lawmakers is whether the budget adopted by the House and Senate last week is valid and can go into effect on July 1. Several legislative leaders generally say yes, it probably is OK, but the governor says no, he cannot sign the budget bill as approved. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has taken a two-option approach to...
Coastal lawmakers say they made progress this year toward at least halting the deterioration of the state ferry system, with the intent of maintaining reliable service in the years ahead. Their hopes, however, will have to wait on the governor’s decisions on the budget and also on legislation that would restructure the public advisory board for Alaska Marine Highway System operations. “It’s all got to get across the finish line,”past the possibility of any gubernatorial vetoes, said Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chair of the budget-...
The borough estimates its revenue loss due to the pandemic and its hit to economic activity in town could total almost $2.2 million by June 30, 2022. That total for lost revenue at the marine service center, port and harbors, utilities, the Nolan center and museum and other borough accounts does not include an estimate for any drop in sales tax revenues. The $2.2 million covers fiscal years 2020-2022. To help fill the pandemic-caused drop in borough revenues, Wrangell is scheduled to receive $485,000 in federal aid under the American Rescue...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy must have learned how to manage state finances from the same people who guard the world’s biggest secret recipes: Col. Sanders’ fried chicken, Coca-Cola, Big Mac’s special sauce, Twinkies and Dr. Pepper. Keeping secrets from customers is smart marketing hype. Keeping secrets from the public is irresponsible. And, in the governor’s case, it’s dishonest. Dunleavy, who served on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough school board and later spent five years in the state Legislature, should know his arithmetic — if he had paid attention i...
Ortiz supports cautious draw on Permanent Fund The state budget is currently being negotiated in a House-Senate conference committee, with its final passage through both the House and Senate hopefully occurring this week. When the Alaska Legislature convenes again, its focus will turn to a more daunting task: Redefining the role of the Permanent Fund in how it pays for our annual dividend and state services. Multiple House committees, including House Finance of which I am the vice chair, have hosted informational hearings on different ideas...
Setting the amount of this year's Permanent Fund dividend - and deciding on how to pay the cost - continues to hold up agreement on a state spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The Legislature has been in special session since May 20. The joint House-Senate conference committee that was appointed to settle budget differences has met only a few times, briefly reviewing non-controversial items, with a meeting expected sometime Wednesday. Most legislators have left Juneau to...
A former co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives, former board president of the Sealaska Corp. and a retired Democratic state legislator died last Friday at his home in Angoon. Albert Kookesh was 72. Kookesh was fighting prostate cancer. Alaska public radio reported that after being treated at a hospital, he made the decision to return to his home village on the coast of Admiralty Island. In remembrances posted online and shared on social media, he was praised for his work with Southeast Alaska’s regional Native corporation, his efforts t...
Alaska legislators are in the second week of a special session to finish work on the state budget for the fiscal year that starts in just five weeks, while also deciding the amount of this year's Permanent Fund dividend. Lawmakers have held few committee meetings and many have left Juneau, as private discussions involving House and Senate leaders, their colleagues and the governor's office generally dominate such negotiations. The Legislature adjourned its regular session after 121 days on May...
Nearly $77 million in federal pandemic relief funds would be used to cover the state contribution to the Alaska Marine Highway System operating budget through Dec. 31, 2022, bringing more certainty to scheduling the vessels, under a deal worked out between the governor and legislators. The money would come from the transportation section of a $900 billion relief bill passed by Congress in December. The governor announced the funding plan while in Ketchikan last Thursday. The federal money, when...
The Alaska House of Representatives has passed a bill intended to prevent teacher layoffs the next two years with early appropriation of state funding to local school operating budgets. Though helpful in its intent to provide funding certainty to school districts, it does not solve the budget problems of districts, such as Wrangell, that have seen steep enrollment drops during the pandemic. State funding for local schools is based on their annual student count. In previous years, late budget action by the Legislature has forced some school...
A quarter-century ago, Congress appropriated $110 million explicitly to help Southeast communities get through the loss of the timber industry, the region's big economic driver. This year, federal money is coming to the aid of the new dominant industry, tourism. However, Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman said, there is a key difference between the loss of the timber industry and today's struggles in the tourist industry: Tourism will come back one day. But it will take time. Federal pandemic relief funds...
A state Senate subcommittee had asked the Department of Transportation what it could do if it had more money to cover some of the gaps in the Alaska Marine Highway schedule. Part of the answer would be improved winter service to Wrangell - if the Legislature appropriates the money and the governor accepts it. An additional $4.5 million in state dollars - separate from passenger and vehicle revenues - could improve service for "those communities that were struggling this winter," Matt McLaren,...
Federal pandemic relief aid, one-time funding sources - some of doubtful legal authority - and other salves to ease the state budget pain in the fiscal year that starts July 1 only mask the underlying illness, the Legislature's chief financial analyst told senators. Filling the holes with ongoing state dollars in subsequent years - regardless of the size of the Permanent Fund dividend - could take about $250 million more than the governor proposes in his budget, Alexei Painter, director of the L...
The state is not going to fill its billion-dollar fiscal pothole with additional deep budget cuts, said two veteran legislative finance committee members. The hole is too deep, and years of cuts to the operating and capital budgets already have reduced state spending on public services to a 15-year low, on a per-capita basis adjusted for inflation, according to numbers assembled by one of the co-chairs of the Senate Finance Committee. When dealing with the budget, legislators have had to...
As of last Wednesday, Nov. 18, all absentee and early ballots have been counted for District 36. According to unofficial results for the Nov. 3 election, there were 3,748 absentee ballots cast this election, as well as 10 early votes and 458 questioned ballots. "All the eligible ballots have been counted," Tiffany Montemayor, with the Alaska Division of Elections, said. "Every district, every precinct." District 36 covers the communities of Wrangell, Ketchikan, Metlakatla, and others....
The following are unofficial results for how Wrangell voted in the 2020 election, as of 3 p.m. on Nov. 4. 732 ballots were cast on election day. As of Friday afternoon, Nov. 6, these numbers have remained unchanged. For President, Wrangell cast 171 ballots for Joe Biden, and 526 votes for Donald Trump. For U.S. Senator, Wrangell cast 167 votes for Al Gross, and 504 votes for Dan Sullivan. For U.S. Representative, Wrangell cast 196 votes for Alyse Galvin, and 519 votes for Don Young. For State...
The Alaska Division of Elections, in a Nov. 9 press release, announced a schedule for conducting absentee ballot counts. Moving forward, they announced that the public could expect updated counts to be released twice daily, at 5 p.m. and again at the close of business. "It is the mission of my office and the Division of Elections to ensure public confidence in the electoral process by administering elections with the highest level of professional standards, integrity, security, accuracy, and...
Last week, the Alaska Marine Highway Reshaping Group released a report it had been working on for several months throughout the pandemic. Even though this group has finished it’s task, I will continue to work to find ways to increase ferry service and reliability throughout Southeast Alaska and the rest of our state, at a level that is sustainable, functional, safe, and efficient. The Reshaping Group made several recommendations, many of which focused on the need for the ferry system and the ferry budget to focus on long-term service goals, r...