Legislative session has ended, and now that I’m back in the district, I’d like to give you a brief overview of this year’s legislative actions that will impact Wrangell.
As your state representative, I sponsored and passed three bills – “Commercial Fishing Loans,” “Mari-culture Revolving Loan Fund,” and “Dive Fishery Assessments” – that will support and enhance our fishing and mari-culture industries. HB 128, “Shellfish Enhancement Projects” was a fourth mari-culture industry related bill. It passed the House 37-2 and made it through Senate Finance, but I was disappointed to see it get stuck in Senate Rules. I also passed a resolution that will help protect and preserve our 20 Alaska Native Languages.
As a majority member of the Finance Committee, I play a big part in creating our state operating and capital budgets. As the Chair for the Department of Fish & Game (F&G) and Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) Finance Subcommittees, I oversaw the creation of those agency budgets.
Eleven new management projects have been included in this year’s F&G budget; each of the projects will potentially increase commercial catch opportunities in various fisheries throughout the state. In our DEED budget, we secured additional K-12 funds at $20 million for this year and $30 million next year. We also passed HB287, which early funds education so that school districts can plan ahead. In our capital budget, the Governor’s proposed $5 million for the Wrangell monofill off-island cleanup project passed, the AMHS ship service will increase by eight weeks, and we were able to secure an additional $20 million for the AMHS operating fund.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at Rep.Dan.Ortiz@AKLeg.gov or call at (907) 247-4672.
Reader Comments(0)