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Though they say the level of funding for the state ferry system in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is adequate, coastal legislators don’t like that the governor wants to use one-time federal money to pay the bills, eliminating almost 95% of state funding. Their fear is that when the federal dollars from last year’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending plan run out, so too will adequate ferry service. “Those federal dollars were meant to augment state money, not replace it,” House Speaker Louise Stutes, o...
The primary election for governor is less than seven months away, on Aug. 16, with the general election in November. And though it’s only the end of January, there is no need to delay this endorsement call: Wasilla Rep. Christopher Kurka is not who a healthy Alaska needs as governor. With an emphasis on healthy. Candidates often have a hard time getting anyone to notice their announcements early in the campaign — especially during a miserable winter like this year, when there are roofs and boats and pipes to worry about. So they sometimes will...
In a break from past practice, the Alaska Department of Revenue this year will provide monthly updates to legislators whenever projected oil prices — and state revenues — move up or down more than 10%. Several legislators worry that could confuse budget deliberations this session. Revenue staff has updated the state’s twice-yearly oil-price forecasts internally but not released the numbers to the public, the department’s chief economist Dan Stickel told the Senate Finance Committee on Jan. 20. “We’ve decided to go ahead and start releasing t...
JUNEAU (AP) — A federal judge on Jan. 20 sided with a former state attorney who alleged she was wrongly fired over political opinions expressed on a personal blog. U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick ruled that Elizabeth Bakalar’s December 2018 firing violated her free speech and rights under the U.S. and state constitutions. In October, Sedwick sided with two doctors at the state’s psychiatric hospital in Anchorage who had declined to submit resignation letters and also were fired, same as Bakalar, as the new administration of Gov. Mike...
Under questioning from a bipartisan legislative committee on Monday, the chairman of the Alaska Permanent Fund defended the board’s decision to fire former executive director Angela Rodell but declined to answer substantive questions about the reasons for the action. Chairman Craig Richards said the board had years of “trust problems” with Rodell. Citing the confidentiality of board discussions and the possibility of a lawsuit by the ousted director, he refused to answer questions about the source of those problems, and he declined to say w...
JUNEAU (AP) — Parts of Southeast Alaska are receiving assistance from the state after getting up to six feet of snow. Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Jan. 13 issued a disaster declaration for the Yakutat, Juneau, Haines and Skagway areas, his office said in a statement. The declaration activates emergency response options and a disaster recovery program, including possibly financial help, for those affected by the storm. For a four-day stretch ending Jan. 11, up to six feet of snow fell in parts of the disaster area. That was followed by warmer temperatu...
The governor has issued a disaster declaration for Wrangell after a windstorm took down power poles and disrupted services on Nov. 30, though it appears most of what the borough has requested is not eligible for state aid. The borough estimated its total costs related to the storm at $1.06 million. Of that, $255,372 was for public works, utility and police overtime, contractors, equipment and damages to structures; and $807,500 would go toward “critical future needs,” such as several backup generators for the water treatment plant, com...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The longest-serving magistrate in Alaska is no longer on the bench after writing letters to the editor critical of the Republican party. Former Seward Magistrate George Peck wrote four letters to the editor of the Anchorage Daily News, the latest in December which claimed the Republican party “is actively trying to steer the U.S. into an authoritarian kleptocracy.” The other letters written since 2019 have been critical of former President Donald Trump and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, both Republicans, and the GOP, the Ancho...
Pacific halibut catches for 2022 will be announced at the annual International Pacific Halibut Commission meeting held online Jan. 24-28, and fishermen are hoping for another year of increased catches when the fishery opens in early March. Last year’s coastwide catch limit was 39 million pounds for commercial, sport, subsistence and personal-use fisheries, and bycatch, spanning from California and British Columbia to the far reaches of the Bering Sea. Alaska always gets the lion’s share of the quota, and in 2021 fishermen holding shares of the...
BETHEL (AP) — A school that is in danger of being lost to river erosion because of climate change is at the top of the state’s list for the construction of a new school building. The Alaska Department of Education put the school in the Southwest village of Napakiak, population just under 400, at the top of its priority list for replacement for the upcoming fiscal year. However, being No. 1 on the list doesn’t ensure the community will get the funding for a new school. “Of course, that’s completely up to the Legislature,” said Tim Mearig, fac...
Four students have sued to force the state to maintain a designated fund that provides university scholarships, challenging a decision by the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy that emptied Alaska’s $410 million higher education trust fund last year. The change in policy from previous governors eliminated a source of reliable funding for college financial aid, forcing the scholarships to rely on legislative appropriations from the state general fund, same as any other state expense. The Alaska Higher Education Investment Fund provided f...
With the Matanuska out of service longer than expected for more repair work, and the state uncertain whether it can bring an idled ferry out of a cost-saving lay-up, the Alaska Marine Highway System is seeking bids from private vessel operators to possibly provide additional winter runs to several Southeast communities, including Wrangell. The state issued the hurried bid notice on Dec. 31, with proposals due by 2 p.m. Friday. The state also is advertising for a contractor to help it recruit and hire for the ferry system, which is short on...
State Sen. Bert Stedman, who represents Sitka and central and southern Southeast, including Wrangell, is in his 20th year in the Senate, serving much of that time as co-chair of the budget-writing Finance Committee. As lawmakers prepare to resume work Jan. 18 in Juneau, Stedman said Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget appears to be balanced — and not balanced — at the same time. “It’s balanced, but not when you compare recurring revenues to recurring expenditures,” Stedman said. “We’ve got to unwind that. The structural deficit is goin...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has accepted Donald Trump’s endorsement for his 2022 reelection campaign, telling the former president he will not support Lisa Murkowski in her reelection bid for the U.S. Senate — a condition of winning Trump’s endorsement. The former president has vowed revenge against Murkowski and other Republican lawmakers who supported impeachment for Trump’s role in instigating last January’s insurrection at the Capitol during certification of Joe Biden’s election as president. Trump has endorsed Murkowski’s primary challenger, K...
As of Jan. 1, Wrangell’s roadways won’t look much different after a new state regulation adopted by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration took effect. Alaskans are now allowed to drive their ATVs on most roadways where the speed limit is 45 mph or less, unless the city or borough opts out. The new law will only affect one portion of Wrangell streets. “For us, there’s really not much of a change of anything,” said Lt. Bruce Smith, of the Wrangell Police Department. Except for the Airport Loop, he added. Municipal code already allows ATVs to be...
Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer will not run for reelection in 2022, leaving Gov. Mike Dunleavy free to choose a new Republican running mate this year. In an interview Dec. 28, Meyer did not rule out an eventual return to politics, but said he wants to take a break. “It’d be nice to get to sleep in and spend more time with the family,” he said. Dunleavy, who is running for reelection to a second term, said he expects Meyer will use his last year in office to focus on an election-reform bill the governor announced in late December. Under the new elect...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy last week outlined what he called a responsible budget proposal that doesn’t dip into savings, bolsters law enforcement and calls for direct payments of about $3,700 to residents amid an unsettled dispute with lawmakers over the future of the state’s dividend program. But the budget relies on high oil prices to help pay the bills and is heavily dependent on one-time federal pandemic aid dollars to help cover the cost of public services usually paid out of state funds, such as the Alaska Marine Highway System. The budget pla...
The board that oversees Alaska’s multibillion-dollar investment portfolio has fired Angela Rodell as chief executive officer of the Permanent Fund Corp. Legislative leaders and Finance Committee members are upset at the surprise decision and plan to hold hearings to ask questions. The fund this past fiscal year grew more than 25%, with record returns on its investments. The board on Dec. 9 voted 5-1 to remove Rodell. The five votes came from members last appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The board did not disclose a reason for the decision, whic...
Letting politics influence management decisions of the Alaska Permanent Fund is like inviting an acquaintance with COVID-19 to dinner. You may get lucky and nothing bad happens, but the possibilities for misery are real. One of the tenets of an endowment fund is to minimize risk, or at least measure the risks against the potential gains. It’s unclear whether the Permanent Fund’s board of trustees were thinking about that when they voted 5-1 last week to fire Angela Rodell, who has served as executive director the past six years. During her ten...
JUNEAU (AP) — A U.S. District Court judge has rejected a challenge by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration to a special subsistence hunt authorized for a Southeast Alaska tribe by a federal board last year. The Organized Village of Kake in spring 2020 requested an emergency hunt, citing food security concerns amid the pandemic. The Federal Subsistence Board granted a limited season of up to 60 days, and the harvest was distributed to 135 households in the village, according to filings with the court. The normal hunting season doesn’t begin...
JUNEAU (AP) — Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Monday he plans to propose as part of his upcoming budget that the state spend $5 million in federal dollars to support tourism marketing efforts amid the ongoing pandemic, and additional funds to prepare state parks for visitors next year. He said the hope is for a return to “robust” tourism activity after a difficult two years. Speaking in Anchorage, Dunleavy said people are “starting to learn to live with (the coronavirus) … understanding that it’s not going to go away, but there’s ways to protect onese...
For the sake of this holiday political fable, let’s assume there is a Santa Claus and the all-knowing gift giver tracks your behavior 365 days a year, not just the month or so before Christmas — much like your phone, your web browsing history, Alexa, front-door camera or whatever other electronic tracking device that watches over you. Santa knows who has been naughty or nice long before anyone starts wrapping December presents. And let’s hope that Santa — and coastal Alaska voters — have been making the list and checking it twice for the past...
The state of Alaska has spent decades trying to predict, forecast and even guesstimate the price of oil in an ongoing effort to help the governor and legislators draft an annual spending plan. If state officials truly could know the price of crude a month, a year, two years out, budget-building work would be much easier. Or at least more accurate. And while Alaska’s budget health, public services, education funding and road maintenance is much more dependent these years on Permanent Fund earnings than on oil revenues, any periods of high oil p...
The Alaska Marine Highway System is looking for private companies to fill service gaps over the winter for small Northern Southeast communities. The LeConte is scheduled to go out of service in early January until the end of February for its annual overhaul and recertification. That would leave several communities without ferry service for two months. Mainline ferries are too large to serve the communities and the state’s smaller ships are unavailable. “The stars are not aligning for us to use one of our own vessels,” said Sam Dapcevich, a spo...
JUNEAU (AP) — A conservative Republican freshman state legislator announced plans Monday to run for governor, joining a field that includes Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, former independent Gov. Bill Walker and former Anchorage Democratic state lawmaker Les Gara. Rep. Christopher Kurka, of Wasilla, announced his plans in a video on social media in which he levied criticisms at Dunleavy. “The dirty little secret of Juneau and Washington, D.C., is that while most conservative officials talk tough about Republican ideals, very few have the int...