No sooner had the Senate passed House Bill 57, which suddenly added $184 million to school districts in Alaska, than the Senate asked the House to send the bill back. Someone spotted a provision in it, added by Sen. Rob Yundt of Wasilla, which was clearly unconstitutional.
Yundt had worked with Democrats Sen. Loki Tobin and Sen. Bill Wielechowski to pass an amendment that would provide some $23 million in reading grants. That amount used to be a rounding error in the state budget, but these days it’s a lot of money.
The way the amendment is worded makes the reading grants dependent upon passage of Senate Bill 113, by Sen. Wielechowski, which taxes businesses that are conducting internet sales in Alaska. Apparently, Yundt had made a deal with the Democrats to support that tax, and his amendment dedicated some of that expected revenue to the reading grants. That bill has passed the Senate but not yet passed the House.
That addition of dedicated funds made the bill unconstitutional.
During the “sausage-making” process that all bills and amendments go through, the constitutionality aspect was overlooked by the lawyers who work in Legislative Legal. Someone pointed it out to the Senate Majority after the vote had already been taken on Monday.
House Bill 57 has had a twisted life. It started out as a simple bill by Anchorage Democrat Rep. Zack Fields that would get school districts to ban the use of cell phones by students during school hours.
But then it became the mule for what is now about $200 million in more spending for education, and a hefty increase to the Base Student Allocation formula. Once the Senate got ahold of the bill, it became tarted up with all kinds of wants and desires, with no fiscal notes. Yundt fell into the trap and Democrats did him no favors.
During floor remarks on Monday, Sen. Yundt effusively praised the Democrats for helping him get his amendment passed. He noted that he is not an education expert, but more of someone who makes deals and looks for the “soft spots.”
“This is what teamwork looks like,” Yundt said, after thanking the Democrats for their cooperation.
The bill is now been bounced back to the Senate Rules Committee and will return to the floor on Wednesday for repair.
The fix may be that the word “shall” can be changed to “may,” in Yundt’s amendment, but if that happens it means there is no real funding source for the $23 million he wants, and that makes it unpalatable to many in a year where funds are scarce. The fiscal support for the amendment has all but collapsed.
Meanwhile, there’s another aspect to the bill that has constitutional questions and makes it vulnerable for a lawsuit on down the road.
HB 57 has a provision that mandates the Department of Labor and Workforce Development track Alaska high school graduates for 20 years to see what happens to them in their lives. There are no specific parameters to the tracking, which may involve their careers or may involve other things, such as personal data; it’s just a general tracking provision in law that keeps tabs on Alaskans until they turn 38 years old. Critics say this is a severe violation of the Alaska Constitution’s privacy provision.
Yundt. The worst, SENATOR ever elected from Wasilla.
What ???? These people are a joke talk about bad at math. Where is all the monies coming from
There’s no shortage of opiate pipe dreams in Juneau, just the funds to fill the pipe… but luckily they have a camel with it’s nose under the administrative tent flap too give worthless bureaucrats a high-paid ride to a 20-year retirement 💯😎
Willy: geography lesson time, my man.
Yyndt is from Wasilla, not Juneau.
You can chip your teeth about legislation you don’t like promoted by representatives from Juneau or Skagway or Gustavus or the other communities that send representatives who live in Juneau to Juneau for service in the Alaska Legislature but this amendment was from a guy from the May-Su Valley in our state.
Onward……..
What an incredible disappointment Yundt has been.
Not the only unconstitutional education bill cooking…handing out public money to private schools is another wing-dinger. By the time the details of the case are ironed out, the Supreme Court will slam dunk it down the toilet.
I voted for Stephen Wright. Air Force Graduate, Pro Life, Full PFD, TRUMP MAGA,. I am starting to Campaign for him NOW to defeat Yundt in 28.
What kills me is the simplest solution.to the Alaskan edication system is profoundablly present. Right in front of our eyes.. Remove Alaska state government influence from local education policy (how can the state even whisper its inconpetence in this subject) that includes the state political subdivision known as school districts (again… how can the state even whisper its inconpetence in this subject) and allow each parent the ability under a contract for education funds to work in an agreed and defined education system based on the the performance and outcome of its customers. It is a simple equation which eliminates 90% of the state and local bureaucracy. Money is saved and than allocated to remaining and relevant educationalactivities.