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Alaska state transportation officials are contemplating sinking a ferry to save money. The Department of Transportation has considered turning the Malaspina into an artificial reef. The ship is one of the two large sister ships, along with the Matanuska, that helped start the Alaska Marine Highway System almost 60 years ago. The Malaspina has been tied up in Ketchikan since December 2019, when it was taken out of service to cut the budget. The department has said it could cost $18 million for...
JUNEAU (AP) - The state health department is floating the idea of providing COVID-19 vaccinations to travelers at Alaska's busiest airports with the summer tourism and fishing seasons looming. The department released a request for information March 24, seeking to determine interest among potential contractors to provide a one-dose vaccine to interested travelers in a secure section of the airports in Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks and Ketchikan. The document said implementing strategies to reduce...
JUNEAU (AP) - The state of Alaska and several other groups have filed to defend the Tongass National Forest’s 5-month-old exemption from a nationwide rule that limits development on federal land. The filing fights back against a group of tribal, environmental, fishing and tourism organizations that sued the Trump administration’s decision last year to dismiss the roadless rule for the Tongass. The roadless rule was adopted in 2001 and limits road construction and timber harvesting on National Forest lands. “The Tongass holds great economic oppo...
JUNEAU (AP) - A plan by the governor to close six Division of Motor Vehicles offices and contract with private companies to provide services has been met with resistance from the state Legislature. Under the proposal, the state would save money but the public would have to pay extra fees charged by the private companies for licenses and registrations. The plan by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration to close the offices in Haines, Eagle River, Tok, Homer, Delta Junction and Valdez would save about $500,000 a year in operating costs, according t...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy wants to create a new state ferry system advisory board with one state official and 10 public members to replace an existing advisory panel, similar to a separate proposal from coastal lawmakers. The difference being that the legislative proposal would protect board members from dismissal by a governor, while under Dunleavy's bill the members would "serve at the pleasure" of the governor. The governor would appoint the entire board under Dunleavy's bill, while the Legislature...
Though Eagle River Republican Sen. Lora Reinbold made peace with legislative leadership and wore a face mask for the Senate floor session on Monday, Wasilla Republican Rep. Christopher Kurka removed his mask during the House floor session and was asked to leave the room. "Let's end this charade," Kurka said. "COVID-19 is here to stay. No measures we take are going to stop it, no matter how repressive a course, or unconstitutional." The freshman legislator expressed doubt that the federal Centers...
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...
Alaska is in a fiscal mess and Gov. Mike Dunleavy is making it worse. The state has spent almost all of its easily accessible savings. Budget cuts have hit hard at essentials such as the ferry system, university and some social service programs. Our credit rating is at risk. And yet the governor acts like next year or the year after is soon enough to figure it out. Calm and thoughtful is good, irresponsible is bad. Dunleavy's plan is to spend from the Permanent Fund until a better idea comes...
It’s likely that no other fishing regions of the world reach out for stakeholder input as much as Alaska does to gather policy-shaping ground truth by state and federal managers and organizations. That’s demonstrated by two new surveys — one which aims to quantify how much Alaska fishermen and processors paid out over the past year to lessen COVID-19 impacts and how much relief they got from government programs; the other to learn what technology needs are tops with harvesters. The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is collecting infor...
JUNEAU (AP) - Gov. Mike Dunleavy has said he is feeling better after contracting the coronavirus last month. Though his voice still gets slightly hoarse if he talks for too long, his other symptoms are now mild, he said Friday. He had a bad headache, fever, chills and body aches for a several days, said the governor, who finished his isolation period Saturday. There have been more than 56,000 coronavirus cases and 301 virus-related deaths in Alaska as of March 5, according to data from the state Department of Health and Social Services. The...
A federal judge on Feb. 17 dismissed a lawsuit arguing that tribal members of Alaska’s sole Native reserve — on Annette Island, south of Ketchikan — should not need state permits to fish outside the reserve’s marine boundaries. Public radio KRBD reported the story. Metlakatla Indian Community sued Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration last year. Lawyers for the tribe said the 1891 federal law that established the Annette Islands Reserve was intended to create a self-sustaining community — and that the right to fish in waters within a day’s trave...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said his administration will no longer respond to or participate in hearings led by Sen. Lora Reinbold, telling the fellow Republican in a withering letter Feb. 18 that she has used her position to “misrepresent” the state’s COVID-19 response and that her demands for information are “not based in fact.” Reinbold has criticized the governor’s pandemic disaster declarations and taken aim at health restrictions imposed by local governments, airlines and the Legislature, including mask requirements. She has used social medi...
Testing for COVID-19 will continue at the Wrangell airport, and at other airports throughout Alaska, even though the state pandemic disaster declaration expired Sunday. However, the testing will be optional rather than mandatory, except in those communities with their own rules. The Alaska Legislature was unable to agree on a new disaster authorization for the governor, who declined to issue a declaration without legislative action. "As of now we will continue with airport screening and...
More than $6.5 billion in federal funding for pandemic relief has already been authorized for individuals, communities, school districts, businesses, health-safety programs, government agencies, the fishing industry and others in Alaska, with more probably headed this way. Legislators will likely want a say in how any new money coming to the state treasury will be used. The White House and Democrat-led Congress are pushing for additional federal assistance, as much as $1.9 trillion, including...
By Frank Murkowski The Canadian government recently announced that cruise ship arrivals and departures from Canadian ports will be cancelled until February 2022 - the news is a shock to our entire state. Before the coronavirus, it was estimated that cruise ship visitors to Alaska last year would exceed 1.3 million. Polling indicates that the majority of U.S. cruise ship passengers choose Alaska as their No. 1 preferred destination, but that dream has evaporated this year, devastating Alaska's...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is asking lawmakers to put before voters this summer a $356 million bond issue for projects across the state. The governor wants a special election - rather than waiting until the next statewide vote in 2022 - to get the work out sooner to help the pandemic-tattered economy. "This statewide bond package is essential to stabilizing our economy and putting Alaskans back to work following the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic," Dunleavy said in a statement. "Not only will...
JUNEAU - A state corporation is seeking almost $4.5 billion in federal funding to help build a $5.9 billion pipeline to move North Slope natural gas to Fairbanks. The project is being promoted as the first phase of the state-sponsored $38 billion project to move North Slope gas more than 800 miles to Nikiski, on the Kenai Peninsula, where the gas would be supercooled into a liquid and loaded aboard 1,000-foot-long tankers to buyers in Asia. The larger project to transport and sell North Slope natural gas overseas has been around for decades,...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is asking legislators for $2 million in state funds to hold a special election this summer, to ask voters their opinion of a Permanent Fund dividend that would average $2,400 a year for the rest of the decade and beyond. The governor's proposal is to split the annual withdrawal of Permanent Fund earnings between dividends and public services 50-50. He introduced legislation to call for the special election as an advisory vote, and a few days later promoted the issue in his...
The governor had a chance to talk honestly about taxes when he announced his 10-year budget plan last month. He had a second chance Jan. 28 with his State of the State speech. Sadly, he failed both times. The governor's 10-year fiscal plan acknowledges there will be a $1.2 billion hole in the state budget 18 months from now. That's equal to more than 20% of public services and Permanent Fund dividends the next year. And that's after spending down the state's savings for much of the past 30...
Pacific halibut harvesters received some rare good news last week: Increased catches in 2021, along with a longer fishing season. At its annual meeting that ended Jan. 25, the International Pacific Halibut Commission boosted the coastwide catch for 2021 to 39 million pounds, a 6.53% increase over last year. It includes halibut taken in commercial, sport, subsistence, research, personal-use and as bycatch for fisheries of the West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska. Almost 300 individual Pacific...
JUNEAU (AP) - More people are leaving the city of Juneau than arriving because of state budget cuts and declining state jobs, labor officials said. The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development estimates more than 1,300 people have moved out of Juneau since the city’s population peaked at 33,162 in 2015, public radio KTOO-FM reported. Juneau lost 172 residents from July 2018 to July 2019, and 286 residents from July 2019 to July 2020, officials said. The state population has also declined during that time. Agency economist Sara Teel...
It's good that President Joe Biden and members of Congress, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and members of the Alaska Legislature are all talking about doing more to help people hurt financially by the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting damage to the economy. The harm to people's lives and livelihoods has been terrible and, in many cases, long term. But not everyone needs help, and we should not use the state and federal treasuries for one-size-fits-all solutions. Workers who have been able to stay on the j...
The social-distancing protocols of the pandemic severely cut into their petition signature gathering efforts last year, but now the Recall Dunleavy group wants to reengage Alaskans and win a spot on the ballot. The group, which started its effort in July 2019, held a virtual press conference Jan. 19 to start a renewed push to reach the 71,252 signatures of registered voters to force a statewide special election to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The group already has close to 50,000 signatures, and...
The single biggest hit to fishermen from the COVID-19 virus is lower dock prices, according to Alaska and West Coast harvesters, and 98% said their businesses have been badly bashed by the pandemic. That's based on survey results compiled by Ocean Strategies, a public relations firm that focuses on fisheries that helped profile the Pacific region for a larger federal study. Nearly 400 fishermen responded to the short, confidential survey launched last November, said senior consultant Hannah...
JUNEAU (AP) - A proposal to split the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services into two organizations has been criticized by health care workers, social service organizations and tribal governments. Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced the reorganization plan last month, saying the department had become too large and its administration too burdensome to operate as a single entity, the Juneau Empire reported Jan. 14. Dunleavy issued an executive order to establish the Department of Health and the Department of Family and Community Services. The...