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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.