Some of the most influential liberals in the Anchorage bowl have written a letter to the Anchorage Salaries and Emoluments Commission, asking that the commission make the health benefits for Anchorage Assembly members the same as it is for other municipal employees.
If approved, this will cost the Anchorage taxpayers roughly $500,000 a year.
The Assembly members already receive a $250 bi-weekly municipal benefit stipend in addition to their salaries, which are about $60,000 per year. The chair of the Assembly is paid $67,000 per year.
Signing the letter was Mayor Suzanne LaFrance and numerous liberal former members of the Assembly, including now-Sen. Forrest Dunbar, now-Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, former Assemblywoman Austin Quinn-Davidson, and retired Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones, who was most recently a major player in the election of LaFrance as mayor.
The decision by the commission is something that would be final and not voted on by the Assembly. The matter was brought up at the Aug. 6 meeting of the commission, details about which can be found at this link. No vote was taken and no future meeting has been publicized.
“The recent debate over salaries for Alaska legislators demonstrates that fair pay and benefits for elected officials is a growing concern. When the pay and benefits for elected officials are so low that only wealthier residents can participate, it harms the democratic process and leads to elected officials who have less in common with the people they represent. The Anchorage Assembly functions best when it is a true reflection of our community, and the addition of health care benefits will make the job more accessible to a wider range of people,” the letter said.
“The issue is also a matter of fairness. The work of an Assembly Member frequently exceeds 40 hours of work a week. If any other municipal worker put in this many hours and did not receive the full health care benefits package, it would be a violation of municipal policy. In fact, even part-time municipal employees are eligible for the full monthly health care benefits contribution. To get an idea of an Assembly Member’s schedule, in a recent two-week pay period in June, a time when the Assembly tends to have a lighter schedule, the Assembly had 28 hours of meetings in which members were expected to participate. They also spend about 4 hours a week in committee meetings, 10 hours a week responding to constituents, 10 hours a week working on legislation and research or related communication with municipal employees and partners, and 6 hours a week at community council meetings and community events, which yields well over 80 hours of work per two-week pay period,” the letter said.
The group goes on to argue that without health benefits, there is no equity.
The letter demonstrates that the Assembly has made its work a full-time job and now wants not only full-time pay, but is starting down the road of full-time benefits for something that used to be considered public service.
The complete letter is below:
They should be on Obamacare, “Murkowskicare” since she was the deciding vote. The don’t walk the leftist walk.
Makes one wonder why McCain picked Queen Sarah over the Princess.
McCain despised Palin just as much as Trump hates having JD Vance dragging him down. When will Donald replace JD with RFK Jr. so we can hear a soothing, elegant voice in the upcoming debates. That should be a pleasant 90 minutes.
Cuz Murkowski always has the looks of a freshly caught salmon.
Done correctly, isn’t the Politburo supposed to be a part time job?
I guess Spicy Gato wants Anchorage to make him an “honest man”, complete with benefits and pension.
Maybe a nice house, too?
Spicy Gato!!! Now that is pretty darn funny!
The role of government by design was suppose to be citizens legislators working for the people and that is all when they are done they go home and work their actual jb. If they don’t like the hours then leave the Assembly and do no run for Office. Plain and Simple
Check my math please.
$500K, divided equally among the 12 members of the Assembly is $41,666 a year, That is $3,472 per month.
.
Damn…. that must be some fantastic medical insurance.
.
And, that will make it the same as other City employees? No wonder the Muni is going broke.
Yes you are right on and watch the anchorage voters rather not vote or vote to be a taxpayer who likes to be lied to and stolen from.
I just don’t understand why anybody would vote to be taxed more and their tax dollars going for toilets instead of roads and snow removal equipment.
We know Anchorage voters voted a certain way because we blindly trust officials whose only purpose in life is lying, cheating, and stealing to tell us so?
Are you sure the voters installed these assembly members? Frankly, I think I voted, but have no idea when there is no accountability when the ballots are getting counted.
Based on my experience when I lived in Anchorage, I can easily believe the voters put those clowns in place.
That’s the plan… Alaska is going to learn the hard way and in real time how communism actually works… And it’s the home team that is doing this… Nobody’s coming in from North Korea or Cuba to bunker up in these administrative buildings showing them the way… ^^^
Now is not a good time for taxpayer funded government servants and employees to be asking for increased pay and benefits. People are suffering to pay their bill due to Bidenomic policies. In a recent poll, 73% rated the economy fair – poor. Our national debt is over $35 trillion. That is $104,000 per person, $267, 000 per taxpayer. In the last 10 months of FY 2024 we spent $1.52 trillion more than we took in. In July, the largest segment of job increases was in government. We need growth in construction and production.
People are having a difficult time paying for the essentials of food, shelter, and energy. Credit card debt is up 48.1% since 2021, an all-time high. Since Biden/Harris took office the CPI index indicate nationally: gas up 46%, consumer prices up 19%, groceries up 21%, electricity nationally up 28%, rent up 22%. Earnings are up only 1.93%.
I think if we took a poll, we would learn most favor a decrease in pay and benefits for the Assembly.
So glad I left that toilet bowl last year!
There is a disproportionate ratio of corpulent sodomites on that board compared to Anchorage’s general population and both are well known health risk factors beyond what they might normally have. Is there no standard these supplicant board members need hold themselves to in order to make them less dependent upon the health care community and by extension the insurance community?
Scrump,👍👏 best comment yet!
Hate speech!!!
Sexual deviants belong to a protected class.
Get with the times.
They are your overlords. Grovel or go home.
Lol
According to the letter “The Anchorage Assembly functions best when it is a true reflection of our community,”
Apparently we are destined to become a San Francisco
Please turn your head and cough, Bob.
Heaven forbid. AIDS isn’t roaring back, is it?
If they don’t like what they have then quit and get a real job.
They weren’t elected to get deluxe health plans. This is the start of more money for them and less for the taxpayer.
Watch the 500,000 toilets show up next.
By the way the mayor wants a sales tax.
Maybe if they worked less they would do less harm.
Until Anchorage tax payers march down to the City Hall with torches and pitchforks (so to speak), nothing will happen. It’s as if they are saying that they want more communism. I’ve run out of sympathy for “conservative” Anchorageites who are not forcing the ASSembly to pull away from communism. The bad thing is that, as goes Anchorage, so goes… .
When will people understand that when in politics, the left side of the aisle always charges the taxpayer more than the right side. Keep voting in the left and keep watching the spending increase while your wallet gets lighter.
We are already paying half a million to tear down Private owners derelict properties.
We are loaded with extra cash from the government so let the government pay the bills 😭
Excuse the interruption, but please enlighten all of us where you think “the government” gets their cash??? You make no sense, try again!
Obama care you have to love it.
I don’t mind public servants (if they are truly serving all of the public) to get paid to do a job of high responsibility.
However, like most jobs of the common populace, employees are responsible for the purchasing of their own health insurance.
If the health insurance is not affordable, perhaps something should be done to correct the gross price gouging that is common within the medical system. A lifetime ago medical help was affordable to pay with cash and doctors would even visit you in your home and provide homeopathic treatment. Todays medical system trends towards chemical treatment of symptoms and it is less common for the root cause to be addressed for true healing.
Public service is supposed to be that of self sacrifice for the good of the community, not a career path that breaks the economic backs of its citizens. A temporary position.
On top of that, health care should be primarily the responsibility of the individual through proper nutrition, exercise and spiritual practice. If our public servants represent themselves as unhealthy individuals (a couple very heavy set individuals come to mind), then they should be taking a more proactive approach to reducing their food intake and becoming less of a strain on the medical system in the first place.
Too often do I see our so called representatives creating a beast of a government that requires more and more to feed. This is unsustainable. It becomes highly dependent on the hard labors of the citizens which later suffer because it leads to higher and higher taxes. Eventually there will be more government positions and less private positions and the financial strain will become more present on the citizens as the government does not have the means to fund itself. Then with more burden on the citizens, more homelessness shall ensue.
The government will become an un-quenchable beast that must always be fed or else it will collapse and leave a vacuum for bad actors to fill (if not already).
Individuals who serve must find a balance in their own personal health and economy before they seek to serve the greater humanity. They took the job knowing that it’s compensation was. If they did not like the terms, then what actually motivated them to serve in the first place?
So “proper nutrition and exercise” will keep people healthy? Guaranteed? From all the thousands of health issues that hit people through no fault of their own? I’ve known young and healthy people who were extremely fit who died from sudden illness and I’ve known less healthy and less fit people who lived long. Having a sense of humor and appreciating other human beings and contributing to their communities are even better ways to stay healthy. But I understand that basement dwellers struggle to keep their heads above the ignorance.
What point are you trying to make here? Are you saying you should do nothing at all because you don’t think it works?
You can have a sense of humor and take personal responsibility for your health. Or you can be a perpetual victim and blame everyone else. See which one works out better for you. It is your choice.
Why are you attacking basement dwellers? That is a random thing to do, as they have nothing to do with this conversation. I don’t think they would appreciate you accusing them all of ignorance.
Not a lot of money, say the price of a portable toilet.
Guess we should have seen this coming. I didn’t, but am sure they have been working on this for a while. Probably accounts for many of the “hours” they put in. When will they be voted out? How much more of this?
But they are not employees.
The assembly members should get Only a bare minimum in health coverage based on their reduced actual hours worked
Besides they do not deserve a dime more for people who have individually and collectively ruined and destroyed Anchorage. These people are liars and thieves to all of us.
NO MORE MONEY
But they’re not Muni employees. Cheers –
Must be the grossly obese Felix pushing for hard working tax payers to pay for his healthcare.
Yes pay for the rest of his life.
Brawley is right there with Spicy Gato. Probably ahead of him to the buffet.
You make a humorous but truthful point. If obese people would lose weight, their health concerns and medical requirements would be reduced. However, it is easier to do nothing.
Along with quitting smoking, quitting alcohol, developing a sense of humor, contributing to your community and getting rid of your hatred towards other people. Obesity is a very common health issue along with the 20% of people who smoke, the many, many, many people who consume alcohol to excess, and, well, just the general hatred you all feel towards your fellow human beings. Having a positive attitude and a sense of humor go a very long way towards better health outcomes.
Does that include mental health care? Can the public demand their assembly representatives to utilize mental health help since they’re paying for it?
Umm…you RAN for the ‘job’, not HIRED for the ‘job’ within the normal sense of the work…. therefore, you are NOT qualified for said benefits of the ‘job’ you have been ‘given’ the job to do…
Better yet, apply for all the benefits of the ‘homeless’ you all so promote, inclusive of free housing, free meals, free clothing and sustenance, all whilst you bask within the glorious existence of that which you promote endlessly whilst giving up your stolid existing living arrangements.
Afterall, you should be able to join them easily, while wishing the taxpayer to pay for both their existence and yours within the same existence, no?
Within this action, or request, you put yourself above the needful that require said funds, so within retrospect, you all MUST give up all consideration unto yourselves so as to benefit those without said consideration you yourselves consider said needs above and beyond the taxpayers of this City.
Within that thought process, ALL assembly members must immediately surrender ALL income and property unto the Municipality so as to reimburse the homeless what they are due, and allow them to occupy, at their convenience and opportunity, said resigned monetary and property gains, meaning that they can take over the bank accounts and property of said assembly members at any given time they wish.
Sounds equitable to me….
Proctologists charge alot these days. Hope the Assembly gets good coverage for the LGBTQ members.
That’s a hole different ballgame.
That is an ignorant and stupid comment. Hopefully you don’t have a partner or children to pass your ignorance and hatred onto.
Which comment above? Both sound truthful. I’m sure Alvin’s kids are quite normal, without tongue rings, green hair, and sex change hormone injections.
This is amazing, local elected officials have turned part-time assembly service into a full-time job. Having served on the Anchorage Assembly for nearly ten years when our stipend was $8,000 – $12,000 per year, with no health insurance, I am appalled how this group of assemblymembers feel they are “entitled” to full-time pay and benefits. The time each of them invests in assembly work is no greater than what assemblymembers put in during my tenure, so why the need for such a lucrative compensation package.
While they argue that the current compensation and health benefits are necessary to provide ”equity” so that not only the wealthy can serve, fact is during my time on the assembly, many of us were not wealthy and worked full-time in the private sector. Guess times have changed and serving on the Anchorage Assembly is no longer public service but rather a well compensated full-time government job for the political elite.
Thanks for your service to our community Craig.
I long for those years when local government actually made some sense.
The moment we started paying elected “officials” for their “work” we created a position that appeals to the grifters, frauds, and power hungry elitists. Greed and power are two of the most powerful, yet generally negative, motivating factors in human behavior, and we combined them into a single “job.”
.
Is it any wonder the politiboro is full of corrupt individuals?
What percentage of this cost will the individuals pony up? Most of us pay a sizeable amount of our own premiums. Part time jobs usually don’t come with bennies. And, as several have pointed out, they are not muni employees at all. If they want bennies, they should get real jobs, like the rest of us.
TERM LIMITS
ONE AND DONE
I hope the additional healthcare benefits include mental health care costs as it seems to be one of the more costly benefits needed to dictate policy especially handling the homeless population they seem to be so fond of while collecting additional revenue from the serfs.
I am quite certain their workload contains at least 20 additional hours per pay period just finding ways to tax and collect additional revenue to pay for the extra expense.
Next on the agenda will be finding a way to get the Portlandia Potty’s back on the ballot.
Isn’t constant in real estate? Zaletel is also on the homeless crisis bureau (bs) comittee, Felix is a door dash driver (supposedly) and I don’t know or care about the rest, but this is second job for the assembly…….dont they get compensation packages from their primary employers????
Also, why should get the same benefits as a policeman,fireman,emt,electrician or any other muni employee??? They sit in their butts and talk….not work.
WTH?
It sure seems this assembly has worked hard to ‘create’ lots of laborious, albeit likely many non essential, hours that they then are now using to make their demands. They certainly have cultivated an abundance of homelessness issues. Sounds like a rues to me. For many, many decades citizens have served as assembly representatives while also holding down careers generating income. It seems this assembly have created permanent careers for themselves. Time for Anchorage to institute term limits.
Meg Zaletel was so overwhelmed last summer she needed an extended European vacation just to keep the insanity in check.:)
I’m sure there are heavy mental health and counseling bills for the Assembly. They have much deviance and other “urges”.
Monkey Pox can be an expensive ordeal to overcome.
Seems like some expensive health care, but I guess transition surgeries are expensive. I mean……
What sort of health care coverage did Pete Peterson have when he ran his own pizza shop in south Anchorage? This was before he moved to east Anchorage with a plan to jump on the “Gravy Train” and run for office. If Pete had such a hard time making ends meet while on the assembly (where he rarely spoke and voted according to Forrest Dunbar’s instructions), there was no good reason for him to continue to run for office. If he hadn’t been term-limited, he probably would still be trying to be there. Or … he’d go back to making pizzas.
Also, too, the Assembly is to a full-time job and assembly members are not Muni employees.
Oh c’mon, my first comment wasn’t so bad…is it because I called Constant by name?
Nothing wrong with enriching yourself from public service.
The Anchorage assembly is already attempting to tax me out of my home, there is no reason to pay for their health insurance. If they want employer offered health insurance, they should go find a JOB, instead of running for public office. This is BS on a new level.
Why? Part time job with full time benefits? Guess they know how to spend the “Peoples” money!
Why is no one asking the real question….
Why are they not getting this from their “day job” employers.
Meg’s $250K/YR ACEH job did not include healthcare, but 6 weeks in Spain was included?
An eye doc does not have healthcare for a business he is part owner?
Christy’s substance abuse job @ Akeela does not offer healthcare?
City employees who select healthcare PAY for it, its not free.
YES, it gets some city payment support.
The City pays a lot for health insurance. And if you decline it, you get a pittance. The amount the city pays for your insurance compared to what they’ll give you for an alternative option (like a HealthShare) is astronomical.
Does that Cadillac healthcare plan cover sex change surgery? Asking for a friend. LMAO!
Medication time! Medication time!
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