By ALEX GIMARC
On Saturday, the Alaska Legislature met in special session and overrode two of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s vetoes. The first and most important of these was upholding the unaffordable, unsustainable increase in the foundation formula for public education next year: 45 votes to override were needed and 45 was what the majority caucuses got.
Two excellent pieces of reaction to this were penned by Suzanne Downing on Saturday, and Seward’s Folly on Monday. Glen Biegel and Ed Martin both penned heartfelt comments decrying the override to another Suzanne piece on Saturday.
Analysis of the vote showed every single democrat voted for the unsustainable increase in public education funding. Every single Republican that chose to caucus with them also voted to override.
The 21-member House majority caucus (2 Republicans – Chuck Kopp and Louise Stutes) managed to pick up 7 additional Republicans for the override vote. These included Jeremy Bynum, Julie Coulombe, Bill Elam, David Nelson, Justin Ruffridge, San Saddler, and Will Stapp.
In the Senate, the 14-member Majority coalition (5 Republicans – Jesse Bjorkman, Cathy Giessel, Kelly Merrick, Bert Stedman, Gary Stevens) managed to pick up three additional Republicans for the override vote. These included Mike Cronk, James Kaufman and Rob Yundt.
Any single member of the newly formed Republican Override Caucus of 10 votes against the override and it fails to pass.
None of the members of the Republican Override Caucus demanded any accountability from public education for the additional money. Not a single one.
None of them demanded improvements from what is currently the 49th best performing school system in the entire nation. Not a single one.
All of them agreed to shovel more money into a failing system.
Congratulations, guys. You must be very proud.
If it were up to me, I would target all 10 of these putative Republicans for removal from office in the next election (2026 for all House members and few senators, 2028 for the rest). I would do the same thing for the seven Republicans that crossed over to caucus with democrats, handing them legislative power on a silver platter.
Finally, I would target every single democrat possible.
There are opportunities in 2026. First of these are openings in House District 5 (Louise Stutes, who is going to run to replace Gary Stevens (Senate District C). Much easier to pick up an open seat than to bounce an incumbent.
It is not all bad news, as legislative politics on the political left have scoped down to two related issues. The first is destruction of the Permanent Fund dividend. Second, is the growth of the foundation formula. Make that large enough, and there is no way it will ever be rolled back, gobbling up every penny of the PFD to pay for it now and in the future, not unlike like JB Pritzker at a pizza bar. A return to defined benefit pension retirements for government union members is the same idea. If they lock the new spending in, the PFD is gone forever.
Other legislatures in the Lower 48, particularly those in red states, are doing amazing, creative things for their citizens. Not here in Alaska, where the only two ideas are how to destroy the PFD and lock in additional spending to benefit public employee unions.
Oh joy.
Other than that, Alaska Democrats are much the same as Democrats in the Lower 48 — out of airspeed and ideas. You would think the rank-and-file union members with children would want something other for their kids than the current garbage masquerading as public education. Perhaps not, but I am forever hopeful.
Somewhere along the line, we are going to have to get off the dime in this state and our Legislature needs to do something other than figure out how to destroy the PFD.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the political world has changed for Alaska. Resource development is back. ANWR, NPR-A, Cook Inlet are all going to be drilling and producing. Offshore in the Chukchi and Beaufort Sea may not be far behind. Pebble is going to be dug. We may see a natural gas pipeline. The growth of fish farming internationally will continue to grind commfish into so much economic dust. Finally, the Trump administration is coming for the Homeless Industrial Complex so lovingly constructed here in Anchorage over the last decade.
We ought to be in position to take advantage of those changes and start growing the economy of this state rather than participating in increasingly bitter fights over a static to shrinking pie.
The combined Majority Caucuses in both the House and the Senate and the newly formed Republican Override Caucus have told us who and what they are.
It is up to us to listen to them, believe them, and do something about it. Should be a fun ride.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
The author promotes a very common misperception. He talks about the giving education more money and an “unsustainable increase” but the reality is, funding now is about .03% higher than last year. The legislature voted to override a significant cut to funding.
I realize plenty of people are against the current funding level, but let’s be honest in our discussion and call it what it is….flat funding.
Our representatives are so disappointing. Our voters, at large, really need to get it together and remove these bad actors. Removing Ranked Choice would be a get boon to helping this happen. All RCV has done is allowed fake Republicans to avoid primaries and fool low-information voters + democrat “cross overs” to push them over. RCV has really been painful for Alaska and should be our primary target.
For example, as a Eagle River resident, Kelly Merrick would not have survived a Republican primary here. But RCV allowed her to go “head to head” with the real Republican. All Democrats voted for her and just enough new/military/uninformed voters gave her their vote to push her over.
Mr. Gimarc, I used to read your letters in the ADN and enjoyed them very much. Glad to see you here in a much better venue. I was on the Wasilla City Council for many years but before I started, someone said to me, “You do know that politics is a very dirty business, don’t you?” After my election, I made the comment that it was certainly a true question. It was a very eye opening experience even at that low level. Thanks again!