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When the shrinking Alaska fishing village of Karluk made a plea on social media asking two families with three to four children each to move to the community to save their cherished school, they did not expect thousands of responses to pour in. “We have been bombarded with phone calls, and overwhelmed with emails,” Alicia Andrews, the president of Karluk Tribal Council, told The Washington Post. “For years, we have been trying to save our school and our community, and now it seems we have a solution.” The advertisement that quickly spread...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy last month announced his vetoes for the budget passed by the Legislature. After lawmakers had reached a bipartisan compromise, I was ultimately pleased with the final budget numbers that we passed. Therefore, I and a significant majority in the Legislature were disappointed in what the governor chose to veto. His largest veto was education funding. The legislature passed a $175 million increase in the base student allocation for K-12 public school funding, equivalent to an extra $680 per student. Nearly all of Alaska’s 54 s...
Nearly a decade after construction started and a month after it was put into service, the 280-foot-long Hubbard was officially christened as the newest ferry in the Alaska Marine Highway System’s fleet on June 26 in Juneau. The Hubbard — first envisioned in 2006 as part of a project to shuttle passengers between Juneau, Haines and Skagway — has experienced plenty of rough waters before a couple dozen attendees boarded it for its christening during a stormy day at Juneau’s Auke Bay ferry terminal. Initial construction was completed in 2018, b...
Alaskans are having a harder time accessing child care now than they were five years ago, an expert told a new task force charged by Gov. Mike Dunleavy with developing a plan to make child care in the state more available and affordable. The task force, which Dunleavy formed in April, had its first public meeting on June 28 via Zoom with about 60 people, including the dozen task force members, in attendance. The group has until the end of December to deliver an initial plan to address the state’s child care challenges. At stake is the welfare o...
Though the governor vetoed half of the legislatively approved increase in state funding for public schools, it will still be enough to erase the deficit in the budget adopted by the Wrangell school board last week. The budget for the 2023-2024 school year shows a $121,717 deficit, which is covered by drawing on savings, but the district will revise its spending plan in the fall to include the additional state aid and after it has enrollment numbers. The district expects to receive a one-time increase of about $212,500 in state funding for next...
More than two months ago, Gov. Mike Dunleavy told legislators he would introduce a state sales tax as part of a long-term, budget-balancing fiscal plan. Something is needed to end the annual budget battles that have dominated Alaska politics for the past three decades. A sales tax is not the best option, but at least the governor appeared ready to participate. However, he never introduced the bill, nor did he ever say why he failed to do what he said he would do. Later that same month, the governor said he would likely call lawmakers into...
Southeast legislators said they were disappointed that Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed half of the one-time increase in state money for K-12 public schools, but will try again next year to address education funding needs. “We heard from school districts around the state that needed the money,” Ketchikan Rep. Dan Ortiz said June 21. The $175 million increase that legislators appropriated for the 2023-2024 school year was a compromise between House and Senate members, Democrats, Republicans and independents, he explained. The money, which Dunleavy cut...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Monday vetoed half of the $175 million increase that legislators appropriated for school districts across Alaska — cutting back the first boost in state funding for K-12 public schools in more than six years. The Wrangell School District had expected to receive an additional $425,000 in state aid for the 2023-2024 school year under the Legislature’s budget plan. The governor’s veto cut that by 50%. State funding covers about 60% of the district’s roughly $5 million operating budget, with the rest from the borough and fed...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office says it didn’t review an incendiary video address prepared by the adviser he had put in charge of the state’s new Office of Family & Life. In the video presented May 11 to the Alaska Family Council, Dunleavy’s then-pro-family policy adviser Jeremy Cubas described supporters of abortion rights as “seemingly demonically possessed” and claimed they were motivated by a “primal urge” to “sacrifice a child at the altar of their false idols.” The video, obtained last week in response to a public records request, raises new...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Sen. Dan Sullivan, both Alaska Republicans, criticized the Biden administration for filing federal charges against former President Donald Trump. Dunleavy’s statement was issued before the indictment was unsealed June 9 by the U.S. Department of Justice. In an interview later that day, Sullivan said he stood by his statement, though he hadn’t yet read the indictment. Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a frequent critic of Trump, said the indictment needed to be taken seriously. The former president is accused of ret...
Alaska’s legislative session ended last month, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy has yet to consider most of the 31 bills passed by both House and Senate this spring. The Legislature’s 31 bills are the third fewest of any first-year session since statehood. The biggest bills of the year are the budget bill and the annual mental health budget. Dunleavy could veto or reduce line items within the budget before the start of the state’s fiscal year on July 1, but with a couple weeks to go, he hasn’t given any clues about his thinking. Other bills waiting...
The first session of the 33rd Alaska Legislature adjourned last month, with a lot of issues unresolved. “We were just tied up too much with the issue of the dividend and the budget and how we’re going to pay for things,” said Senate President Gary Stevens after adjournment. The slow movement on priority bills was tied to the protracted disagreement between the House and Senate majorities over the size of the Permanent Fund dividend, but also questions about other priorities. Lawmakers will reconvene in January 2024 for the second regular sessi...
The reactions by Alaska’s top elected leaders to former President Donald Trump’s indictment last week say a lot about what they think of the public. Two out of the three — our governor and junior U.S. senator — must think the public is politically motivated above all else, unable to consider the facts and unwilling to believe that the former president could ever do anything wrong. I’ll add “gullible” to the list because, sadly, the two apparently think the public is gullible enough to believe their accusations, which sound like they were min...
People are growing increasingly cynical about government: How money is spent, how hiring decisions are made, and how it seems there are few consequences for actions that hurt the public. Yet too many elected leaders continue making bad decisions that add to the cynicism. Such as Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointing to the University of Alaska Board of Regents his former chief of staff whose poor judgment — and illegal actions, according to a judge — cost the state at least half-a-million dollars. Tuckerman Babcock, a longtime political adviser to the...
Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s adviser on “pro-family” policies resigned May 30 after revelations that he made incendiary and offensive statements on a podcast. A review of more than 100 hours of recordings found that Jeremy Cubas defended some of Adolf Hitler’s views, boasted that he uses a vile racial slur “on a daily basis” and said people should “get violent” in response to aggressive transgender activists. He also said it’s not possible for a man to rape his wife. “When you signed the contract, you have already consented,” Cubas s...
Remember what your parents, teachers and truant officer said: You are judged by the company you keep. Too bad Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his attorneys general didn’t think more about that before signing on to multiple lawsuits against the federal government, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Yes, that guy, the one who was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives on a lopsided 121-23 vote last week for 20 counts of bribery, abuse of public trust and other charges going back several years. Donald Trump blamed “radical left Democrats” f...
Alaska’s monthslong delay in disbursing federally funded food stamps to thousands of families still isn’t over — compelling many Alaskans to continue depending on food banks and pantries for emergency food assistance while they wait. While the state reported that on average, new applications for food stamps and other public assistance benefits filed this month were being processed within 30 days, many Alaskans who applied for benefits as early as last fall were still waiting for their applications to be approved. “We are definitely seeing...
The Alaska Supreme Court has affirmed that the state will not be allowed to go ahead with a plan intended to make it more difficult for state employees to participate in a union. In a ruling released Friday, the court upheld and confirmed a lower-court decision that found the state acted illegally when it unilaterally attempted in 2019 to change the rules pertaining to employees’ dues deductions. The five justices, ruling unanimously, said the state violated the Alaska Public Employment Relations Act and the Administrative Procedures Act, as w...
Child care advocates statewide have pushed lawmakers about funding problems, and the effort made a difference in the budget for the state fiscal year that starts July 1. The Legislature approved an additional $7.5 million toward grants for child care providers, though it is not certain until Gov. Mike Dunleavy signs or vetoes the budget bill. The funding is half the amount advocates say it would take to sufficiently boost wages and stabilize the industry. Some lawmakers say they have more work to do. Anchorage Sen. Cathy Giessel, the leader of...
Alaska’s push to become a bigger player in the clean-energy market was in the spotlight last week at a conference convened by the governor, even as the state continues to embrace new fossil fuel production, including the controversial Willow oil project on the petroleum-rich North Slope. At the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in Anchorage on May 23, Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed a measure he successfully pushed through the Legislature that would allow the oil-reliant state to cash in on the sale of so-called carbon credits to companies l...
The budget that legislators approved last week and will send to the governor for his signature into law or veto would provide about $425,000 in one-time additional state funding to the Wrangell school district for the 2023-2024 classroom year. That would deliver almost a 9% boost to the district’s total operating budget revenue, which is comprised of state money (more than 60%), a borough contribution (32%) and federal dollars. “It will still need to pass the governor, so it’s not guaranteed,” Bill Burr, Wrangell schools superin...
Alaska lawmakers reached a compromise on the state budget and adjourned after a one-day special session last week, approving a $1,300 Permanent Fund dividend for this fall with the possibility of a second, smaller payment next year if oil revenues exceed projections. The amount of the PFD and the capital budget — construction and maintenance projects in legislators’ home districts — were the final items that forced legislators into a special session after the regular session ended May 17 without a budget. The governor called them back to work...
Legislation to impose a state tax on e-cigarettes and vape products passed the Alaska Senate on the next to last day of the regular session, but will have to wait until next year for consideration by the House. The House did not take up the measure before adjournment on May 17. A House committee held one hearing on similar legislation earlier in the month, with members raising multiple questions about the tax and other issues. If approved next year, the bill would impose a 25% tax at the retail level on e-cigarette products, including liquids,...
The Alaska Legislature passed a bill May 16 to establish June 9 as Don Young Day, commemorating Alaska’s late congressman, who died in March 2022 after 49 years of service in the U.S. House of Representatives. Young, a Republican known for his gruff manner and bipartisanship, was 88 when he died. He was the longest-serving Republican in the history of the U.S. House. His contributions to Alaska have already been marked in numerous ways, including naming a volcano in the Aleutian chain and a federal office building in Fairbanks after him. Y...
October will be Filipino American History Month in Alaska if Gov. Mike Dunleavy approves a bill that passed the state House and Senate unanimously. House Bill 23, from Anchorage Rep. Genevieve Mina, is largely ceremonial — it does not declare an official holiday or require schools to teach lessons on Filipino American history — but supporters testified that passage of the bill would be an important honor. The first recorded Filipino visitor to Alaska arrived in 1788, and immigrants from the Philippines were critical to the operations of sal...
