After a lengthy debate in the Alaska Senate on Wednesday night, it came down to a 10-10 vote, and thus a failure for a full Permanent Fund dividend this year. The amendment by Sen. Bill Wielechowski would have give qualifying Alaskans $3,400.
The debate lasted hours regarding various amounts and methods of funding the annual oil royalty dividend, but on this particular amendment, the debate was especially passionate.
Another amendment, giving people a $2,300 Permanent Fund dividend, passed, 12-8. An amendment to spend $1.5 billion from the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve Account to pay for it the PFD passed, 11-9.
It is the largest Permanent Fund dividend in Alaska history.
The Permanent Fund dividend was one of the bigger bones of contention in the operating budget discussion as senators were running out the clock on the 121-day session.
House Bill 69 authorizes $4.43 billion in state unrestricted general funds for the upcoming fiscal year 2022 operating expenses and $274.6 million for next year’s capital budget, which leverages nearly $1.9 billion in federal funds for roads, bridges, and other infrastructure.
With more than $10 billion in the Permanent Fund’s spendable portion, senators voted to transfer $4 billion into the fund’s principal account, which cannot be spent without amending the state constitution.
“As we finalize the budgets, we look forward to working with the House and Governor over the summer to finally resolve Alaska’s multi-year fiscal challenge,” said Senate President Peter Micciche. “With a sustainable fiscal package, our state will attract new investment, grow our economy, and generate good paying jobs for Alaska families.”
“I think we’ve got a fine bill in front of us with a fine dividend for the people,” summarized Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chair of Finance, just prior to the final vote. “All told we did a good job. Shaved about $20 million off, all agencies. That’s the operating budget, basically been running flat.
The omnibus budget bill, including the Capital budget and $2,300 PFD, passed 17-3, with Sens. Scott Kawasaki, Donny Olson and Lora Reinbold voting against it.
The bill goes back to the House for a concurrence vote. Likely, the matter will instead be taken up in conference committee.
Special session begins Thursday to take up Senate Joint Resolution 6, which would ask Alaskans to decide on whether to put the Permanent Fund calculation into the Alaska Constitution or to allow it to continue to be a political football year after year.
Dave Bronson gained another 9 vote lead on Wednesday to increase his advantage over Forrest Dunbar. Bronson now is 1,221 votes ahead and far past the percentage threshold to trigger an automatic recount.
With an estimated 1,300 votes left to count, and with every incremental result released by the Anchorage Election Office increasing his lead, Bronson will on July 1 become the 39th mayor in Anchorage’s municipal history.
So far, 90,190 ballots have been received, according to Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones, who noted that the runoff set a new voter turnout record.
The Election Office counted just 427 votes on Wednesday in the runoff between Bronson and Dunbar, which ended May 11. Voters had whittled down a list of 15 mayoral candidates in April for the May runoff, which seems to be taking a long time to count.
Dunbar has not yet conceded, but on Friday said on Facebook he was unlikely to catch Bronson.
The current vote totals are:
Bronson: 45,639
Dunbar: 44,418
From 1981 to 1990, Bronson was an active-duty Air Force pilot and served in the USAF Reserves as a plans officer, and as an Alaska Air National Guard maintenance officer and pilot from 1993 to 2005. He was a commercial pilot from 1990 to 2020, when he retired. He and his wife Debra have been married for 35 years and have raised two children.
Bronson ran on a pro-economy, pro-public safety platform. Although he has not yet declared himself the winner, his campaign websitehas some mention of the transition process and a placeholder link, not yet live, for people to submit ideas and resumes.
A bill allowing for more business opportunities for industrial hemp, was passed by the Alaska Legislature today.
SB 27, if signed by the governor, would allow for the state to maintain a permanent industrial hemp program and allow for more broad interstate commerce of Alaska-grown and manufactured hemp products.
Hemp fibers have been used to manufacture hundreds of products that include fiber for injected/molded composite materials, twine, paper, clothing, construction materials, carpeting, clothing, and animal bedding. According to the University of Kentucky. Up until the 1950s, Kentucky was the leading state for hemp agriculture. Seeds are used in making oils, cosmetics, personal care products, and medicines. Hemp seed or oil can be found in cooking oil, salad dressings, pasta, and snacks.
In 2018, the Legislature passed a bill establishing a state Industrial Hemp Pilot Program. Congress passed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, which changed the federal requirements for the industrial hemp market.
“The passage of Senate Bill 27 will not only ensure federal compliance, but will also provide agricultural and manufacturing business opportunities for hemp and help diversify our state’s economy,” said Senate Majority Leader Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, the bill’s sponsor.
SB 27 passed the Senate 20-0 and the House 38-2, for a combined vote of 58-2. It is now on its way to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s desk for his signature.
To prevent Mayor-elect Dave Bronson from having input on how American Rescue Plan funds are used, the Anchorage Assembly approved $51.1 million in spending during a special meeting on Tuesday, including a last-minute amendment from Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel, to buy a building for the Alaska Black Caucus.
The American Rescue Plan Act poured trillions of dollars into communities across the country, and the Anchorage Assembly split much of the funds off for nonprofit groups. The funds for the Alaska Black Caucus building were stripped from an allocation for the University of Alaska Anchorage.
The nonprofit will get $437,000 to purchase office space, with the justification that the minority communities have been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Alaska Black Caucus will provide service in the areas of economic recovery, education, and community action to address systemic challenges. There do not appear to be any deliverables associated with the expenditure.
Another $500,000 has been appropriated to a building that will be purchased for Choosing Our Roots, a nonprofit that wants to provide congregate housing center for 10 or more gay or transgendered people from ages 18-24. The group is run by a board of directors who have various gender pronouns associated with themselves, including being referred to as “au/auto,” “they/them,” “He/Xe/Fae/Faer,” “Kin,” and a confusing assortment of other identifiers that describe their sexuality interests.
Assemblywoman Jamie Allard said she wanted to delay the $51.1 million in appropriations until the mayor-elect had a chance to take part in the discussion. The bulk of the expenditures were set by Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson, who will return to her empty Assembly seat in July.
Assemblywoman Crystal Kennedy also asked for a delay to allow more review of the amendments, a sentiment echoed by several people who testified that the amendments had not been vetted by the public process. But Assemblyman Pete Peterson said that no matter what they do, the Assembly gets criticism.
“We’re just gonna do it our way. Sorry folks,” he said in exasperation with the public. Peterson is in his last term on the Assembly.
The Department of Health and Social Services website has been taken offline due to a malware attack.
The attack comes three weeks after the Alaska Court System was shut down after a cyberattack. The court system website is now apparently functional again and the state didn’t indicate whether the attacks are related.
The DHSS website was taken offline May 17 while the investigation is being conducted and will be unavailable to the public until further details are known about the incident.
Some services, such as COVID-19 vaccine appointment scheduling and the data dashboards, are hosted by outside sources and can still be accessed through covid19.alaska.gov.
The list of affected services that are offline include:
AKAIMS – Alaska’s Behavioral Health and Substance Abuse Management System
DHSS public website
State of Alaska Vital Records System
DHSS Background Check System
Find A Childcare Provider
Case Management System – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)Work Activities
IBIS – Indicator Based Information System for Public Health
ILP – Grantee Based System for Infant Learning Program
Grantee-based information exchange for the Infant Learning Program
Grantee-based reporting for the Infant Learning Program
SAGE – System for Schools to Report Vaccine Data to Public Health
YODA – Youth Offender Data Application for Youth Courts
GEMS – Grantee Portal for Grants Electronic Management System
AKVaxMatch – Alaska Provider Vaccine Exchange
Developmental Disabilities Waiver Online Form
DHSS Epidemiological Bulletins
Count of Available Beds in Various Behavioral Health Facilities
Review Process for Health Care Construction Projects and Equipment Purchases State Expends for Medicaid
Vital Statistics Online Data Request Form
For phone assistance during business hours (8 am – 4:30 pm), contact the department at 907-269-7800. For questions specific to Covid-19, the vaccine helpline is available at 907-646-3322 from 9 am – 6:30 pm on weekdays, and 9 am – 4:30 pm on weekends. You may also email [email protected] for help.
The Senate Finance Committee is sending to the Senate floor a $1,000 Permanent Fund dividend proposal, yet another arbitrarily determined amount that has nothing to do with is calculated by Alaska Statute. The Senate will meet and wrangle that amount during what is surely to be a lengthy floor session on Wednesday.
But the $1,000 Senate dividend and the zero-amount dividend from the House of Representatives’ means that the final dividend probably will be determined by conference committee. Will they split the difference and make it a $500 dividend?
In other words, once again Alaskans will watch their Legislature pick an arbitrary number out of a hat for the Permanent Fund dividend, something the Legislature has done since Gov. Bill Walker made it a fad in 2016, destroying the traditional formula in law.
Wednesday’s Senate debate will be over the behemoth operating budget that has been combined with the capital budget and the Permanent Fund dividend into a 150-page document that Sen. Natasha Von Imhof dubbed a “turducken”: A chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey. For many legislators, they’ll have to pass the budget to see what’s in the budget. It’s big, and with many moving parts.
How the goose comes out of the oven on Thursday will say a lot about how the Senate will approach the special session called by Gov. Mike Dunleavy for the very next day to work on a constitutional amendment that would allow the people of Alaska to vote on locking down the PFD formula once and for all. Dunleavy’s proposal would end the yearly extended fights over the PFD, and keep it from being held hostage.
Dunleavy’s proposal, by its very definition, would also not allow an overdraw of the earnings reserve account, but some in the Legislature want to tie this PFD decision to a tax or two, and there’s the rub. Will legislators say they don’t have enough time to figure this all out?
Alaskans will see whether legislators are serious about handling the PFD question now that they have a viable alternative in front of them, and take up the revenue question later; or will they just gavel in and go home without considering the governor’s proposal? Will the 50-50 PFD split proposal get pocket vetoed?
Wednesday will prove to be a long day for both the House and the Senate. But rarely, if ever, in Alaska history has the entire package — Operating, Capital, and PFD — been left to the 11th hour on the 121st day.
The Anchorage Municipal Clerk released a new ballot count today: Her election office counted another 2,600 ballots in the Anchorage mayoral runoff election between Dave Bronson and Forrest Dunbar.
Bronson has pulled ahead with a 1,212-vote lead, with 45421 votes for Bronson, to Dunbar’s 44,209 votes.
According to the “white board” at the Election Office, Clerk Barbara Jones has another 1,900 ballots to count. An additional 1,100 ballots have problems with them and need to be “cured” by Friday. The “white board” has frequently been inaccurate but is the only solid information Must Read Alaska has, as of Tuesday evening.
The Bronson campaign has had an aggressive curing program in place since last Wednesday, with dozens of volunteers working the phones, but the Dunbar campaign was slow to the process of reaching out to voters whose ballots didn’t get counted and helping them fix the errors.
Bronson’s attorney Stacey Stone sent a letter to Jones today, asking for greater cooperation with the Bronson campaign, which has felt harassed and snubbed by Jones and some of her staff in the Election Office. Jones has brought up grievances about Must Read Alaska to various volunteers.
Stone wrote that on Monday, Jones issued a press release saying no results would be released that day.
“This, in spite of the understanding that there are at least a few thousand ballots in the Clerk’s possession. As I’m sure you can appreciate, uncertainty in the results of the election breeds distrust. Therefore, we would appreciate notice as to when the ballots currently in the Clerk’s possession will be counted,” Stone wrote.
Volunteers on the Bronson campaign say they cannot get information from the Clerk about which ballots have already been cured, so Stone asked that the Clerk provide that information daily.
Jones may be slowing down the count in order to give the Dunbar campaign more time and encouragement to get its curing program going. The ballots must be cured by Friday.
Indeed, volunteer observers reported to Must Read Alaska that they had the distinct impression the election workers had slowed down the pace on purpose.
The majority of the ballots that need curing are from Democrats, which would mean Dunbar may be able to help cure enough ballots and bring his total within one-half percent of Bronson’s, which would trigger an automatic recount.
Curing ballot isn’t a problem in a normal election, but in this mail-in election, more than one out of every 100 ballots cast in the mayoral race needed to be cured. Most of them will probably go uncured because of the short time period to finish the task, and the fact that some voters whose ballots didn’t count never received a letter from the Clerk about their status. Others were out of town and are not available to go through the curing process.
I, too, was surprised at the tone the Anchorage Daily News took toward Mayor-elect Dave Bronson this weekend, telling him that he doesn’t have the support of half of the people of Anchorage, so he’d better learn to get along with the leftist Assembly.
A great city needs a great newspaper. The newspaper even in today’s world of declining readership and alternative sources of news is critical to a city’s sense of who it is. Clearly based on the writing this weekend, our local paper has decided to take the same approach as many of the national media: Caustic, divisive, and out of touch.
What ever happened to respecting the wisdom of the electorate? What ever happened to the idea that Anchorage residents really do wish success for their next mayor, because the success of the entire city depends on it? Regardless of party or beliefs we are all Alaskans. We have always prided ourselves on being able to have a good political dust-up, shake hands, roll up our sleeves, and get to work.
My hope is that our Assembly will realize and understand that is their charge as leaders in our city, a fact that has obviously escaped the Anchorage Daily News.
The voters in Anchorage decided in April that they wanted a clear choice for the runoff, and they got one. They created a May election that posed two very different philosophies:
Forrest Dunbar represents a Marxist vision for Anchorage, where work and self-reliance isn’t valued, and where critical race theory is the driving force. He represents a vision of a community where the Constitution is diminished because the founders of the nation were imperfect people. Most of the Anchorage Assembly represents this vision for Anchorage, and it’s terribly sad that they have been put in positions of power.
Dave Bronson brings a different vision and a new direction after six years of progressive politics: A return to personal freedom and responsibility, smaller government, getting and keeping this town open for business; no more hard-hearted shutdowns. Most importantly, a town that welcomes and supports its small businesses, and has an environment that encourages development and growth.
The voters – more than half of them – remember former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz standing with the protesters last June, declaring, “I look out and I see a crowd full of revolutionaries, and it makes my heart glad.”
They remember him as the bathroom nude-selfie mayor, and they remember his enabler Forrest Dunbar, who rose quickly to defend Berkowitz against the accusations of a television anchorwoman, whose accusations — some of them — were quickly proven.
Anchorage has seen where so-called progressive policies have taken this community – empty storefronts, homeless cities within our city, with people literally defecating on our streets, a school district that’s not educating our children, and all of this causing more and more Anchorageites to migrate to the valley. Progressivism is, at least in Anchorage, regressivism.
The Anchorage Daily News clearly didn’t get the memo: Anchorage wanted to balance out the Assembly with a mayor who displays common sense and compassion.
It’s telling that a person such as Dave Bronson, with literally no name ID among the people at this time last year, could overcome the household name of Forrest Dunbar: We want to go in a different direction. We expect better of our community.
What the editorial writers at the Anchorage Daily News also missed was the deep pain experienced by so many people in Anchorage, and how they felt dismissed by their local government this past year.
The ADN mentioned a woman who burned her mask at the Assembly, evidently missing the point she was making: The woman is deaf, and she was giving clueless Assembly members a real demonstration of the pain and isolation she experienced while unable to read lips, with everyone in the city forced behind a mask.
People came and wept in front of the Assembly about their lives being ruined by the policies of the mayor, approved every other week for nearly a year by the Assembly.
The public spoke about businesses going under, children depressed and suicidal, and they rightfully objected to a wrongheaded policy to develop a poorly planned homeless industry in Anchorage.
What so many of them told me, while I was campaigning this winter for mayor, is that they want more certainty, less seesaw. I listened and I heard: They felt whiplashed by government telling them one thing one week, and going in a different direction the next.
Even now, restaurant owners are worried about ordering inventory, because they have been burned by government policies that led to spoilage and losses in 2020, which they hope and pray they can recover from.
I wish this mayor-elect well. He has an enormous job turning our economy around and giving the business community confidence again.
Unlike the Daily News, I believe Dave Bronson gets it, he understands that he is Mayor elect of all of Anchorage, that he needs to listen to all voices and work to make life better for all of us. It will benefit the newspaper if he is able to do so. They ought to not only give him a chance, but they should give the voters a pat on the back for voting for change.
Mike Robbins is a businessman in Anchorage, owner of the Robbins Agency, who ran for mayor this year.
The Alaska Court System’s Courtview website, which was offline for about three weeks after a cyberattack, is back.
That means the public has the ability to search cases, pay fines, and access other court services.
The court system has been working with a cybersecurity firm to investigate the breach, and said that no confidential documents or credit card information was compromised.
