Alaska oil company foe Robin Brena has been doling out tens of thousands of dollars to mainly Democrat campaigns in Alaska this year, placing his bets on candidates who might raise taxes on oil companies if given the chance to take control of the Alaska House. The Alaska Senate is already under Democrat control.
Brena’s donations appear at the Alaska Public Offices Commission, showing his strong preference for people like Janice Park, a hardline Democrat, rather than moderate Republican incumbent Sen. James Kauffman who represents District F in South Anchorage.
Brena donated to Democrats House candidates Nick Moe, Cliff Groh, Denny Wells, and Ted Eischeid, and Senate candidates Sen. Scott Kawasaki, Savannah Fletcher, and Republican Sen. Kelly Merrick, who is fighting to keep her Eagle River seat in the Alaska Senate, where she has joined the Democrat-majority caucus.
Brena, who has made his sizable fortune suing oil companies, also has the municipal attorney contract for the City of Valdez, the terminus of the Trans Alaska Pipeline and one of the wealthiest municipalities in the state. That’s a contract that goes out to bid periodically and Brena, who is law partner with former Gov. Bill Walker, has won the contract for years. Many small towns in Alaska have their city attorneys on contract.
Valdez’s entire city budget is $72 million a year for a community of 3,500 people — over $20,571 per resident. The Law Department, with Brena as the contracted city attorney, has a budget of over $3.6 million, more than double what it was in 2020. His budget represents about 5% of the city’s overall budget.
Here is the Law Department budget and the actuals over the past four years:
This year, however, there were cost overruns in the Valdez Law Department, and so the City Council is awarding another $1.9 million to the contract. The increase was passed during this week’s council meeting.
The boost to Brena is nearly 53% increase for the legal services (Brena) provides in just one year. This is giving Brena the cash flow to boost Democrat candidates across the state to the tune of nearly $100,000 so far this year.
The City of Valdez has been suing the State of Alaska this year over a dispute about property taxes in a case that has dragged on for years.
Shyster Attorneys ! What can you say, they are everywhere! Valdez is the loser if they can’t see it….they must be corrupt also! Attorneys should be bared from campaign contributions like judges!
Thanks for running a good photo of Robin Suzanne. The smiling man you see captures his personality. Smart, funny, but deadly in court as he comes prepared better than any attorney I’ve ever met. Oil companies hire Robin when they have to deal with larger oil companies and litigation can’t be avoided. Robin almost always wins.
Today’s news is that Alaskans have now lost an astonishing $58,600- for a family of four- due to our dividends being reduced because Alaska does not have the money to pay full dividends thanks to SB-21- the system that gives our oil away for less than any major jurisdiction in the world.
When Republicans refuse to stand up for Alaskans- like Wally Hickel used to- we find ourselves supporting Democrats who understand that giving away our oil is clearly not in the best interest of Alaskans. Giving away our oil violates our constitution, violates our deal with the feds who GAVE us 105 million acres at statehood so we could support ourselves, and it ensures the Alaska economy is going to shrink. Since we lost ACES Alaska has seen our population decline now for 11 years in a row! We’ve seen our dividends get smaller- and in time- they will go away, or be a tiny fraction of what the already reduced dividend is today.
Robin has stood up for Alaskans. I’m proud to call him a friend, and I wish more Republicans like myself would have the balls to stand up for Alaskans.
What are they afraid of?
Alaska has the $ to pay the full statutory PFD but chooses instead to fund an ever-expanding state government.
“……… Since we lost ACES Alaska has seen our population decline now for 11 years in a row!……..”
Do away with the PFD and let’s watch the parasite class fly out of here as if their A$$E$ were on fire. It would be the best gift possible; at least a 10% population crash within a year, and likely more. And it would be the precise folks we need gone, too.
M, who is proud to call Brena a friend says: “Today’s news is that Alaskans have now lost an astonishing $58,600- for a family of four- due to our dividends being reduced because Alaska does not have the money to pay full dividends thanks to SB-21- the system that gives our oil away for less than any major jurisdiction in the world.”
In case you missed it, it was Gov. Bill Walker who made sure an Alaska family of 4 lost an astonishing $59k in PFD by vetoing it and turning it over to the democrat jackals in the legislature.
This has nothing to do with SB 21, which successfully kept oil in TAPS. Rather it is all about turning the PFD into a political football.
Thanks, Bill Walker. Thanks, Robin Brena. And thanks to all the rest of their fellow travelers who are blaming their perfidy on the oilies. You girls ever hear the Aesop’s fable of the Goose who laid golden eggs? If not, perhaps you ought to review it, as you guys are busily recreating it in modern times. Cheers –
Agimarc, Bill Walker has not been governor for almost 8 years now. Annual budgets passed by mostly Republican legislatures- with a Republican governor- have not restored the full dividend.
It takes billions to pay these full dividends. We don’t have the money to pay full dividends, do a operating budget, pay $1.4 billion in corporate welfare due to SB-21’s $8 dollar per barrel credit, and also inflation proof the corupus of the Permanent Fund.
We are giving away our resource. We are losing billions, and your family is paying the price.
“………..It takes billions to pay these full dividends. We don’t have the money to pay full dividends, do a operating budget, pay $1.4 billion in corporate welfare due to SB-21’s $8 dollar per barrel credit, and also inflation proof the corupus of the Permanent Fund………..”
I’d preach, “Sing it!”, but the simple facts are that most can’t perform the simple math, and they don’t care, anyway. The tit is dry.
And you aren’t going to tax your way out of this. Alaska will be lucky to keep TAPS pumping the minimum amount to keep it viable, even in the midst of world war.
The pinata party is over. Go ahead; kill the goose. ABO (Alaska Before Oil) was a better place, anyway.
Your reading comprehension needs work. From my last:
“In case you missed it, it was Gov. Bill Walker who made sure an Alaska family of 4 lost an astonishing $59k in PFD by vetoing it and turning it over to the democrat jackals in the legislature.”
Apparently we do have the money to install defined benefit pension for police and fire, jack up education spending, and move PFD spending from first priority to the last.
Goal of SB 21 was to keep oil in TAPS. From that standpoint, it has worked nicely despite you Walker / Brena / anti-oil cheerleaders. Cheers –
Agimarc,
You are not really banging away on all cylinders. Let me help you out. The legislature passes an annual budget. The total loss to a family of four of almost $60,000 is the result of lower dividends from the first reduction until present.
Bill Walker is not the governor. Dunleavy replaced him almost 8 years ago. The cumulative loss to this date is the result of all the budgets Dunleavy has agreed to since he became governor.
You are acting like the Democrat morons that want to blame the border crisis they caused on Trump. Dunleavy is responsible for these budgets just like Biden- Harris are responsible for the open border.
We do NOT have the money to reinstate a defined benefit system. We are still in debt to the old system by about $7 billion dollars.
One promise made to get SB-21 passed was we’d get one million barrels per day. That was a lie. So was the lie about more jobs.
Now, genius, tell us where the $10.2 billion we would need to have paid full dividends would come from. We’ve emptied the CBR and SBR.
The welfare credit we pay to Big Oil under SB-21 costs us about $1.4 billion per year. As a conservative, I’d start there. Just that one cut would have provided enough money to pay full dividends.
But you like this welfare. So, go ahead, tell us where you’d come up with $10.2 billion. Be specific. Don’t give us your crybaby crap about “cutting waste and bloat.” Empty- headed people say that all the time when they refuse to do the hard work by telling us specifically where the cuts should be.
So. Go ahead. You have the floor.
Son, you’re flopping around like a well-hooked red. I appreciate that.
M says: “One promise made to get SB-21 passed was we’d get one million barrels per day. That was a lie. So was the lie about more jobs. ”
The goal was 1 million bbl/day. That assumed offshore, ANWR and NPR-A all opened. Thanks to your democrat buddies in the O’Bama and Biden regimes, that has mostly stopped until January. Still, the flow did increase a bit, meaning SB 21 worked.
Want a budget solution. Easy peasy.
– Cut ed funding 50%. Voucher out all ed $$$ directly to parents.
– Freeze PERS / TERS payments at the point of retirement or when the legislation was signed. No COLAs anymore.
– Turn the UA system into a Land Grant system by cutting off all state $$$ to it.
– Get Pebble, Ambler road mines, NPR-A, ANWR, offshore into production.
– Start batching GTLs off the Slope for sale around the Pacific Rim.
This should get you pretty close. Of course, it wouldn’t allow you to prattle on incessantly abut SB 21, but such is life. Cheers –
Agimrac, the problem with your ‘solutions’- is you think the details don’t matter. But they do. This is the difference between your sound bites and the real world.
Oil development on federal land does not return Alaska the revenue that oil on state land does. So your off shore silliness, along with NPRA doesn’t do a thing for our revenue. In fact, it worsens our revenue since costs for these projects not on state land are deducted from oil fields that are on state lands. So your ‘solution’ here would COST us money.
Gold mining does almost nothing. Royalties are about 3% of net. And net can be almost anything a good corporation wants it to be. So, no solution there.
Education and retirement system funding are both protected by the Alaska Constitution. So, no solution there.
You could save a few hundred million by destroying the University. So that’s it. Your solutions don’t come anywhere close to raising over $1 billion.
Try again, and I’ll educate you a bit more.
As far as “oil flow” goes, the output is about the same as it was. So, now you have to take into account the cost- benefit. We have about the same flow, at a cost to Alaska of about $2 billion per year. How in the world does that make any sense? You ever run a business? Dear Lord, you have no business acumen.
Ever crossed your mind to cut the hell out of the bloated, non productive state government?
Why is the law so important when you think Trump is on the wrong side of it, but unimportant when it’s anyone else?
MA. You just want to offer incoherent coments, like the one you just made, without doing the hard work. I’m more conservative than you would ever hope to be. I’d start cutting the corproate welfare to Big Oil that costs us $1.4 billion per year. But you are opposed to that, so we don’t have money to pay your full dividend, which you seem butt- hurt about.
I’ve offered the one cut that would make a major difference. Now you put on your big boy pants and do the same.
Stand up for Alaska? By unlawfully mincing out the PFD in order to give more to the government? You sound like a nutcase, M. How about standing up for Alaskans? You are a typical left-wing Democrat. As for Bill Walker, if Brena stands by him……..then he must also be standing by pedophiles like the deceased Lt. Governor Mallott who ended up costing Bill Walker his career. Great friends indeed. You know how to pick em.
Come on Rick, your little ad hominem drive by attack has zero merit. When Mallot got caught hitting on an adult staffer his resignation was immediately accepted with the full support of both Bill and Donna Walker.
You act like you’ve never had an employee that deserved to be fired.
As far as paying dividends, please inform all of us where the money is going to come from if we are losing billions per year because Alaska is not getting paid a fair price for our oil?
I propose(sarc) getting rid of state troopers, closing all the prisons and letting the convicts run free, shutting down the state court system, and firing all the guys who plow snow for DOT. We also need to shut down our university, stop funding education, and shut down the marine highway. Then, we’ll have enough money for full dividends. Only problem is you will not want to live here. And we will not send you dividends when you move to Texas.
Your retort is childish and typical of a big government approach to running out state. Without oil, you Democrats wouldn’t be living in such luxury with your state jobs, bloated pensions, and derivative luxuries. Yet, you have the lack of vision to criticize the oil companies and those people who work hard to support them. Your myopic vision of how to milk oil dollars for purpose of growing state government is pitiful logic.
Also, your explanation about Bill Walker’s disgraceful exit is untruthful. Byron Mallott was in an adulterous affair with a subordinate employee. He went after his adulteress’s underaged daughter, and this was revealed to Walker and his wife. The Chief of Staff, Scott Kendall, did all he could to suppress the situation but he couldn’t. The compromised Bill Walker hardly had any choice but to leave his soul mate, Byron Mallott and the governor’s office. The ADN refused to cover the story, but the national press did cover it. This is another example of how your big government dollars work to fool the public and skew the facts. Quit lying!
Rick, you stuck it to M. And really good.
👍😆
Rick, I’m way more conservative than you’d ever hope to be. I’ve been in the private sector my entire life. I own lots of oil company stocks. So when Alaska gives away its oil, that’s good for me. I could care less if you ever get a permanent fund dividend ever again.
Having said all this, you seem incapable of offering facts, just a lot of ad hominem silliness.
Alaskans own the oil. Therefore we are simply doing our jobs when we try to get maximum benefit for its sale- like the constitution requires. But you don’t seem to care too much for the rule of law, do you Rick? If you like giving things away, sell me your house for 25 cents on the dollar. No? But its okay to give our oil away for a song?
When Bill was governor he dealt with Mallot exactly as he should have. Once the allegations were vetted, Bill accepted the Mallot’s resignation without hesitation. This was not drawn out for months, or even weeks. It happened with lighting speed- less than 48 hours after Bill learned of it.
Dunleavy’s appointed AG was doing something similar. The AG resigned. I don’t fault Dunleavy for the actions of his AG. But you seem to have a hard on against Walker because your precious dividend got cut because of actions taken by the prior governor.
In your fairy tail world, Rick, money grows on trees. In the real world that isn’t the case.
So, Rick, please join the adult world.
Walker resigned because he was trying to protect a pedophile. Thankfully, we still have some morality left in this state. Walker was on the wrong side and he knew it. That’s why Alaskans rejected him. Immorality and breaking the statutory law tends to do that to politicians.
Judie, I’m going to hold you 100 percent responsible for the actions of Hunter Biden.
Not fair to hold you to account for Hunter? Well, that’s the same lack of logic you apply to Bill.
Grow up.
I guess you are saying that Native elder men who are 75 years old can mess with underage girls because it’s a “cultural thing?”
Bill Walker’s soul-mate, Governor Byron Mallott, was hand -picked by Walker. Apparently, Walker was either too stupid to vett the proclivities of Mallott, or Walker thought that messing with underage girls was within cultural bounds of his soul-mate’s lifestyle?
Your analogy of Papa Joe Biden and his mixed-up son Hunter doesn’t comport with any any logic that I know of. This is more about the immorality of Democrats and Liberals.
Judie, you simply are not able to use logic and reason- at least when it comes to Bill. You do have enough brain cells to understand that what Hunter Biden does is not on you. So why would the actions of Mallot be Bill’s fault? He fired the guy within 48 hours of learning of Mallot’s actions.
As far as your stating that I find that what Mallot did is acceptable, you’re off your rocker. I’m not saying any such thing. Mallot was fired. It needed to happen. I don’t excuse any of his conduct, any more than Bill did. Bill and Donna were appalled.
What is appalling are your comments.
……and we Alaskans fired Bill Walker and replaced him with Mike Dunleavy…..
without relying on RCV. You reap what you sow, M.
Byron Mallott married a woman from the Interior, so plenty of Natives close to me have told me all sorts of things. I believe that his problems were known long before he was elected. That’s not my main point, however. With all the problems Internet Archive is facing right now, I don’t know how accessible the Walker governor’s office website archives are at any given moment. When I browsed the website both as a live site and an archive, there was a gallery page for Walker’s cabinet. Mallott was never listed on this page, but Craig Fleener was. Do you care to continue believing that Walker and Mallott were really tight after reading that?
This post clearly illustrates the ironies and corruption that permeate our state and local governments. The City of Valdez’s attorney derives his wealth from suing oil companies. And Valdez continues to award him contracts. Cesspool governance.
Why would the city of Valdez not continue to award him contracts? Brena litigated and got a fair property taxable value for the Alyeska Pipeline. Alyeska wanted 3 billion value Brena ended up with 8 billion. This resulted in revenue of 38 million a year for the city. So thanks to Brena the city can have a 72 million budget. Alyeska continues to make a profit and no jobs were lost. Maybe Brena does have an understanding of oil taxes.
The money Brena is spending on candidates is his business. It is no different than any other citizen spending their earnings on political donations. To imply that the city of Valdez is paying for these donations is unfounded. Brena has been successful in other ventures outside of Valdez. You can disagree on politics but personally I have respect for a self made kid from Skagway who has secured fair deals for Alaskans.
So he is getting paid extra because of added work load, so Valdez therefore is paying for his campaign contributions? You your logic is flawed. It’s like saying since the price of oil has gone up, I’m paying for the oil companies campaign contributions for GOP candidates.
Brena. But whatever happened to his good friend, Bill Walker, the failed governor who’s soul mate was a certified pedophile? Better be careful who you associate with. Besides money, Brena may bring you bad luck too. Ask Bill Walker.
Jesus, if you put Brena and Walker in the same room, you’ld have a roomful of shysters lawyers. No amount of truth serum would get you to neutral. Fortunately, Bill Walker has been missing for the past five years. He took a shellacking by Mike Dunleavy, and Walker hasn’t been seen since, except for an occasional sighting, walking a lonely beach on Maui.
Bill Walker screwed Alaskans by ignoring state law which formulates the dividend amount to be paid put. Walker was a Big Government man, hell-bent on appeasing the union Democrats who elected him. Mallott was a hard core Democrat. Mallott, a Native elder, had a penchant for younger girls. Walker’s mistake was trying to cover up this fact. Now, Walker walks alone, and no one cares.
Jose, you are full of horse manure. You need to study civics. The governor before Walker signed SB-21. That killed our revenues. To the point that full dividends were no longer possible. Walker was handed this ticking finacial time bomb by Parnell. Both Walker and Dunleavy have had to deal with smaller dividends. (Maybe you missed it, but Dunleavy has never paid a full dividend. Not once.)
Finally, Bill fired Mallot. Immediately, and publicly. Get your basic facts straight, “Jose”.
Dunleavy tried to get us the full, statutory PFD every year. But the Democrats in the legislature blocked him every time. One thing that you are apparently consistent with, M, are falsehoods. Is lying just part of your personal character? Or, is it because you are a hardened Democrat? You don’t fool anyone here at MRAK.
Oh you’re way too clever for me to fool you, Jose. I know when I’m outmatched. Oh, wait. Your boy Dunleavy, the one you adore, what has he done to get us the revenue so that a full dividend could be paid?
Crickey. He’s done nothing. You want a full dividend, that requires Alaska at least getting a fair return for our oil, and ending corporate welfare to Big Oil.
The CBR and SBR are empty, Jose. It takes billions to pay these full dividends.
Looks like you got taken Jose. You have to pay attention not to what politicans say, but what they do. Dunleavy has done NOTHING to get us a fair return that the Alaska constitution requires.
If the City of Valdez is funding Brena’s political campaign donations then that funding is actually largely coming from the state general fund. That is because the Legislature automatically passes on the oil and gas property tax receipts, as calculated by the Alaska Department of Revenue under state law, to the North Slope Borough, the City of Valdez, and the Fairbanks Northstar Borough. This is hundreds of millions of dollars each year going to a very small group of Alaskans, and the excesses have been written up by the Wall Street Journal a number of times – more or less as coverage of public corruption.
Neither Republican nor Democrat legislators have dared to touch this, and these municipalities employ lobbyists to keep it so. And no governor has put in his/her budget a different direction for this state petroleum tax, possibly for reasons similar to why legislators avoid the matter. Some investment bankers have cleared enough dollars from this that they have apparently donated enough to Public Broadcasting to have their name show up in the credits on television.
I saw a Revenue Commissioner, a Democrat, resign over this very matter (and I had better stop that specific narrative right here to avoid trouble). A private citizen took this to the Alaska Supreme Court, using his own money, and the court decision said, “Yes, you’re right, it does violate the constitution but it’s been going on for a long time, and what’s the harm?”
The petroleum property tax can be found in the Department of Revenue Sources Book aka the revenue forecast. The tax is insulated, at least over the short to mid term, from oil price fluctuations, and to some extent from the dramatic decline in North Slope oil production. If a pipeline to bring North Slope gas to anywhere had ever become even close to a real proposal then this property tax venality would need to have been resolved since all proposals for that construction – so far as I can recall – involved using debt. Lenders really don’t like corruption, especially when it’s been rubber-stamped by a state supreme court.
Finally, let’s all remember that without Suzanne Downing and MustRead we would not have access to important news of this sort.
Kubota, lets review some facts. You are asking for the property tax payers in the three munis to pay higher property taxes to subsidize/offset the pipeline not paying the taxes that all the other property owners in these munis must pay. Sorry, that’s not going to happen.
The pipeline is incredibly valuable, and its taxed as real property. The current gross value of our oil taken every year is now about $14.5 BILLION dollars. TAPS is taxed accordingly.
Bjorkman’s name comes up yet again. During a recent campaign event on the Peninsula, he conveniently claimed not to know who his top donor was at an August debate. We can’t help but wonder if he’ll recall these classic videos he’s linked to.
(‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOUmGvhT6WE)
(‘https://www.facebook.com/bencarpenterforsenate/videos/538560295513480)
Jezz, it’s been long established that money talks and bull—- walks.
Mr. Bjorkman speak with forked tongue.
He is honest when it suits his position otherwise, so who knew?
tell me again this state is conservative
Just the word Attorney gets quite the response in long winded blaring attacks. Ha ha.
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