State employees are on travel restrictions as of today, with no travel out of state permitted for State business.
In addition, the Governor’s Office has implemented a hiring freeze due to the sudden drop in the price of oil.
The order came from a memo issued by Chief of Staff Ben Stevens, who pointed to the volatility in global oil markets as he announced an “immediate suspension of out-of-state travel for ALL employees and an immediate hiring freeze to reduce the impact on the state general funds.”
The hiring freeze applies to all positions, except for those necessary to protect the health and safety of Alaskans, he said.
Departments may request a waiver from the hiring freeze due to extraordinary circumstances, which he outlined in his memo.
The freeze does not apply to Alaska State Troopers, corrections and probation officers, and other public safety personnel, or employees at the state’s 24-hour institutions.
Stevens “strongly encouraged” several agencies to adopt their own out-of-state travel restrictions and hiring freezes. They include Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation, Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and others.
Senate President Cathy Giessel also put out a notice to the Senate, restricting Senate travel and discouraging personal travel out of state, but her restriction was to “protect our legislative family and the function of the legislature while we are in session in Juneau,” referring to the current outbreak of the Wuhan virus.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy had three community visits scheduled for the Kenai Peninsula this week, but has suspended all of them in order to give his full attention to the rapidly evolving situation with the coronavirus.
No cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Alaska, but health professionals believe it is only a matter of time. Some 23 people have been tested.
“We plan to continue these important conversations with local governments, school districts, businesses, tribes, and non-profits around Alaska by telephonic means, as well as Facebook town halls, until such time as we can resume travel to communities,” said Governor Mike Dunleavy. “My administration has been closely monitoring the novel coronavirus outbreak since mid-January and are well-prepared with strong protocols should we see any cases come to Alaska. The health, safety, and welfare of Alaskans remains my number one priority. We’re going to work together as Alaskans – we pull together during times like this.”
Earlier in the day, Chief Health Officer Anne Zink and Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum reinforced the need to slow down the spread of the virus by washing hands and not touching faces. The governor said this would be a time for people to consider telephonic meetings, and for elderly people with preexisting conditions to postpone unnecessary travel.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy sounded the budget alarm two years ago, stepping away from the Senate Majority when he could not vote for the budget that was too big, in his calculation. Or for a Permanent Fund dividend that violated Alaska Statute.
Then he ran for governor on promises to get spending under control, follow statute on the Permanent Fund dividend, and lock up repeat criminals.
Now that he’s governor, has not been able to get the Legislature to go along with much in the way of budget cuts, or the full Permanent Fund dividend, or program and budget restructuring, although the Legislature did support him on criminal justice reform.
His relationship with the Legislature’s political leadership has been strained, to say the least.
As luck would not have it, the price of Alaska North Slope oil just dropped into the mid-$30s.
Even if it doesn’t go lower, there’s not enough revenue coming in to pay for the current $4.5 billion budget, much less the $300 million supplemental budget that is on the table.
At $30 a barrel, only $1.1 billion in revenue would come into the treasury, forcing the Legislature to consider breaking the statutory formula created by Senate Bill 26, which passed in 2018 to stabilized the draw from the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve Account.
It took three years to get that bill passed. SB 26 was going to solve at least some of Alaska’s budget problems going forward, as it promised a “structured draw.”
But it was deeply flawed, because it did not address another existing statute, which is the formula for the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend. That statute has been broken, first by Gov. Bill Walker and then by subsequent Legislatures; Walker vetoed, and then the Legislature only appropriated half of the dividend, rather than the full statutory amount.
This year, it seems likely that the Permanent Fund dividend will be shaved to just 20 percent of available revenues, rather than a 50-50 formula. Meanwhile, budget leaders in the Legislature are trying to grow the Permanent Fund corpus to $100 billion at a time of great volatility.
The budget ball is in their court, and specifically, the operating budget is in the Senate Finance Committee.
For now, its nearly a flat budget and they have not nearly enough money to pay for it. There are bills to grow the budget, such as House Bill 236 offered by Rep. Andi Story, which would add another $60 million in education spending over the next two years.
There are add-ons for the ferry system, and add-ons for Medicaid; will the Legislature pass those?
There was the legislative effort, led by Democrats, which succeeded in hobbling the efforts of the governor’s Alaska Development Team, which was supposed to help diversify the economy.
Will the governor make drastic vetoes again, which would fuel the hopes of those trying to have him recalled?
Gov. Dunleavy has had perhaps the worst set of circumstances to deal with of any Alaska governor in his first 15 months of office, at least since Gov. Bill Egan governed during the aftermath of the Great Alaska Earthquake. For Dunleavy, it has been like winning a cross-ocean voyage on the Titanic:
A major earthquake just after the election
Expensive wildfires in the summer of 2019
A ferry union strike during the high season for tourism
Ferries break down due to years of mismanagement
Crashing oil prices
BP exiting the state, and the loss of hundreds of high-paying jobs
Coronavirus and its unknown economic and health impacts
An advisory from the U.S. government that people avoid cruise ships
A legislature unwilling to hold the line on spending
An oil tax measure going to the ballot this year that would make Alaska uneconomic for oil companies
And, of course, a recall petition by those who blame Alaska’s problems on the current governor
Alaska is a living its reality of the state government’s dependency on oil, and a public that may be unwilling to accept less money, less revenue sharing for communities, and fewer state services.
The price of Brent crude could drop into the $20s this week; Alaska tracks slightly higher than Brent, but could still see oil selling below $30.
That is forcing a crisis just ahead, as expenditures far exceed the ability of Alaskans to pay for their government, even if there was a personal income tax or a still-higher oil tax to pay for it.
Brace for impact: Alaska’s tourism economy is about to take a big hit, and that means Alaska’s economy — from Fairbanks to Ketchikan — will likely suffer this summer.
Why? The U.S. State Department has just published an advisory that says U.S. citizens, particularly those with underlying health conditions, “should not travel by cruise ship.”
This serious admonition from the highest level of government is bound to have repercussions. After all, the tourism industry is Alaska’s second largest primary employer.
“CDC notes increased risk of infection of COVID-19 in a cruise ship environment. In order to curb the spread of COVID-19, many countries have implemented strict screening procedures that have denied port entry rights to ships and prevented passengers from disembarking. In some cases, local authorities have permitted disembarkation but subjected passengers to local quarantine procedures. While the U.S. government has evacuated some cruise ship passengers in recent weeks, repatriation flights should not be relied upon as an option for U.S. citizens under the potential risk of quarantine by local authorities.
“This is a fluid situation. CDC notes that older adults and travelers with underlying health issues should avoid situations that put them at increased risk for more severe disease. This entails avoiding crowded places, avoiding non-essential travel such as long plane trips, and especially avoiding embarking on cruise ships. Passengers with plans to travel by cruise ship should contact their cruise line companies directly for further information and continue to monitor the Travel.state.gov website and see the latest information from the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/index.html.
Alaska saw more than two million out-of-state visitors last year, more than 1.1 million of them on cruise ships.
Until the Wuhan virus hit, 1.44 million cruise ship passengers were expected this year, a six percent increase. An additional 10 ships were expected to make 29 additional port calls this year.
Alaska’s visitor industry accounts for more than 43,300 annual jobs, with peak employment at 52,000 jobs. The industry generated $1.5 billion in labor income, and $4.5 billion in economic output in 2017.
ALSO: LEGISLATURE CREATING SUBGROUP FOR READY RESPONSE
By REP. DELENA JOHNSON
In addition to the safety practices suggested by the CDC and Alaska’s chief medical officer, here is what I believe is also good practice in advance of the first case of COVID-19 here in Alaska.
First, build your immune system, take your vitamins, zinc, selenium etc. If you don’t know, have a blood test and see where you are deficient and build yourself up.
Increase your lung health, get outside, breathe, exercise and use this as an incentive to stop smoking.
Make sure your prescription medication is on hand and effective, talk to your doctor in advance. Since I have underlying asthma, I am making sure to get inhaler prescriptions. I’m stocking additional over the counter cold and flu medications as well.
Stay informed, as this is an evolving situation. The more we learn from high-quality source,s the more we can take care of ourselves and others.
According to Alaska’s chief medical officer, there is some who theorize that small children may not get the coronavirus due to the fact that they are swapping the lesser strains of the virus constantly.
Don’t be afraid to hug your young kids and grandkids. Might help.
So rest up, boost your immune system, evaluate your health needs, take care of yourself, take a walk, educate yourself, take your vitamins, and hug a child.
As I continue to go about everyday life, this is what I am going to do. In fact it’s what I always should be doing. Now that I think about it, it doesn’t sound that bad at all.
There are currently no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Alaska, and the State is updating this info daily. You can track the number of cases in Alaska here.
On the legislative side, I sit on Legislative Council and we will meet Tuesday, March 10, to appoint an emergency response/preparedness subcommittee to come up with a response plan.
We are taking the COVID-19 virus seriously and will be making preparations and putting contingency plans in place to address it, in the event that it surfaces in Alaska. I will keep you posted.
TO SAVE FERRIES, SOUTHEAST NEEDS MORE ROAD CONNECTORS
By WIN GRUENING
It has been said that, “A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money.”
This is a truism known to every boat owner. A ferry is a boat too and, as Alaskans have learned the hard way, just a bigger hole into which you throw even more money.
Corrosion may be a nuisance on your vehicle’s bumper, but on ships, it can be catastrophic. Hulls can collapse, ballast tanks weaken, and motors fail, all because of rust. There’s no way to fully eradicate it.
Win Gruening
According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, no organization knows this better than the U. S. Navy. Dealing with rust isn’t cheap. According to a 2014 report, the Defense Department has pegged the annual cost for anti-rust measures for Navy vessels at $3 billion, 25% of their overall maintenance expenses.
Rust is the result of a chemical reaction between air, water and iron – a major component of steel. Add saltwater to the mix, and corrosion accelerates.
Ships denied maintenance for long periods are likely to develop corrosion problems along the waterline where the seawater and air meet. Deferring remedial measures allows rust to accumulate and causes serious problems in just a few years.
The only deterrent is regular maintenance. So it’s not surprising that, as of this week, possibly only two of the 12 Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) vessels will be operational. Some are on long-term layup, but others are suffering from unanticipated maintenance problems, including rust-related issues.
Where does maintenance rank as an overall AMHS budget priority? Apparently, not as high as labor costs that consume almost 70% of the AMHS budget.
Broken-down ferries have severely impacted coastal towns relying on their heavily subsidized ferry service to transport people, vehicles and goods. Estimates for return to service range from weeks to months depending on the nature of the problem and funding availability.
The long-ignored Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan has always advocated putting roads where you can and ferries where you must. But the politics of extreme environmentalism and ferry unions have stymied that common-sense effort for decades.
Even now, opposition to the Kake Access Project championed by SE Alaska State Sen. Bert Stedman continues. This year, DOT plans to begin building a road link between Kake and Petersburg with 13 miles of new single-lane road connecting existing Forest Service roads on northern Kupreanof Island. While this project will require additional road construction and a short shuttle ferry to complete the connection, when it’s completed, it will provide more efficient transportation than past ferry service and give Kake residents access to daily jet service from Petersburg.
Likewise, a similar project on Baranof Island would provide less expensive and faster ferry connections for Sitka residents. Yet these projects, like the Lynn Canal Highway project connecting Juneau with Haines and Skagway, languish as our ferries continue to rust.
The irony surrounding obstructionism of roadbuilding shouldn’t be lost on anyone.
For all the caterwauling about fossil fuel use and carbon footprint, some road opponents continue to perpetuate the myth that ferries are “environmentally friendly.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Juneau Access (Lynn Canal Highway) EIS explains it very well. The project, when built, would increase travel capacity over 800%, and, at the same time, lower the average gallons of fuel used per vehicle by 70% – a direct result of the disproportionately higher fuel usage of gas-guzzling ferries.
Just another reason to build roads where you can and only deploy ferries where you must.
Ferry system subsidies (which are much higher relative to roads) will never be acceptable to the vast majority of Alaskans until serious efforts are undertaken to “right-size” the system, minimize expenditures, and increase efficiency by building road links where possible.
Millions of dollars have been wasted studying the ferry system while ridership has declined, and ships have deteriorated. Defeating rust is only part of the challenge. Whether it’s corrosion, bad engines, or inefficient operation, roads will always be more reliable and less expensive than ferries.
Hopefully, the newly formed AMHS Reshaping Working Group will reverse AMHS’s course and include road building as part of the revitalization of our ferry system.
Win Gruening retired as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in 2012. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is active in community affairs as a 30-plus year member of Juneau Downtown Rotary Club and has been involved in various local and statewide organizations.
On Saturday, the New Jersey Department of Health notified the Maryland Department of Health that a person confirmed with the coronavirus had attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland from February 27-March 1.
“Those who attended or worked at the conference may be at some risk for acquiring COVID-19,” according to a statement from Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.
Speakers at the 2020 gathering included Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, as well as President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
In fact, numerous people from the Trump Administration also spoke at the conference: Sec. of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, Sec. of Energy Dan Broillette, Sec. of Transportation Elaine Chao, Sec. of Education Betsy DeVos, Sec. of State Michael Pompeo, Acting Director of OMB Russell Vought, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., Sen. Ted Cruz, along with a long list of other political luminaries. Even Ronna McDaniels, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee was there.
In other words, practically the entire leadership of the Republican Party.
“Immediately after learning of this individual’s interactions in our state, we began coordinating with the White House, the CDC and federal officials, the New Jersey Department of Health, Prince George’s County officials, and conference organizers,” said Gov. Hogan.
“Due to the scale of this conference, we are urging attendees who are experiencing flu-like symptoms to immediately reach out to their health care provider. We are providing this update not to unnecessarily raise alarm, but in the interest of full transparency and out of an abundance of caution,” he said.
The Maryland Health Department asks that those who attended the conference monitor themselves for symptoms of a respiratory infection including fever, cold-like symptoms, cough, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath.
“Persons who attended this event should check their temperature twice a day and notify their health care provider and local health department if their temperature exceeds 100.4 or if they develop a respiratory illness. They should remain at home until they receive instructions about next steps from their health care provider or local health department,” the official statement said.
The White House said it had investigated and found the chances are low that the president or vice president had been in contact with the attendee who subsequently tested positive and is being treated and quarantined.
A Washington Post reporter, however, begs to differ. Colby Itkowitz wrote, almost excitedly, that “CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp tells me he interacted with attendee who has tested positive for coronavirus. While the timeline is unknown, Schlapp shook Trump’s hand on stage the last day of the conference.”
To which a number of liberals on Twitter responded with glee at the thought of taking down the government with a virus.
CPAC is the major political gathering each year for conservatives and this year’s attendance was said to be over 19,000. The event started in 1974, with just 400 in attendance; the keynote speaker that year was California Gov. Ronald Reagan. This year it was President Trump.
The 2020 Arctic Winter Games, scheduled for March 15-21 in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, have been cancelled due to concerns about COVID-19.
The announcement was made today in a press release followed by a news conference in Whitehorse.
“I’m making this recommendation out of concern for the health and safety of Yukoners, of all athletes, of staff, of volunteers, and of families,” said Dr. Catherine Elliott, Yukon’s acting chief medical health officer.
Some 2,000 athletes from around the world, including several from Alaska, were expected to attend what would have been the 50th anniversary of the games. The nations that are on the roster include: Alaska, US; Greenland; Northern Alberta, Canada; Northwest Territories, Canada; Nunavik, Quebec, Canada; Nunavut, Canada; Sami people, Sápmi (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Kola Peninsula of Russia); Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia; and Yukon, Canada
In a statement, the Yukon government said “It has been determined that cancelling the 2020 AWG is the most responsible precautionary measure.”
The risk for the virus remains low in Yukon, but the committee is concerned about athletes traveling from around the world and then having to live together in close quarters during the games may be a recipe for spreading the virus through the Arctic.
The AWG are hosted in different Arctic locations; the last time they were held in Alaska was in 2014.
Yakov E. Netsvetov School is home to six students in Atka, a settlement of 35 mainly Unangan / Aleuts on a remote island 50 miles east of Adak. The town has lost two thirds of its residents since the 2000 census, when 95 people were living there.
Back in the 1970s, the New York Times described it thus: “…a settlement of 87 Russian‐Aleuts, the village has no zip code, no post office, no functioning dock, no airstrip, no scheduled transportation. Its only communication with the outside world is fickle 50‐watt radio transmitter that cannot be used for personal calls and an old‐Navy vessel that is dispatched from Adak Navy Base, 120 miles away, once a month, provided weather and military commitments permit.”
Things are more modern these days on Atka. Although it still has some of the worst weather in the world, there’s a zip code and a post office that opens for two hours most days. But the population is dwindling fast.
If your child is one of the six students remaining at Yakov E. Netsvetov School, that education is costing the State of Alaska $139,000 per year.
To compare, it costs $46,000 to attend Harvard University, or $67,580 for tuition, room, board, and fees combined.
The Yakov E. Netsvetov School receives $834,000 of public funds for those six students as money funneled from the State through the Aleutian Region School District.
Also, if you’re one of those students, you’re probably related to most of the others; there are but three households in Atka with minors in the family.
Although it’s the most expensive per-student education in the state, no one really knows how those six students are doing in terms of academic proficiency. The school’s test scores are not reportable, due to privacy concerns. All we really know is how much it costs.
Netsvetov school is an an outlier, but a look through the list of schools in Alaska shows that the median spend per student is about $20,270, while the average spend per student is over $26,000, more than two times higher than the $11,500 spent per student nationally.
According to the U.S. Census, of the 50 states, New York ($23,091), the District of Columbia ($21,974), Connecticut ($19,322), New Jersey ($18,920) and Vermont ($18,290) spent the most per pupil.
But that’s not accurate, according to the self-reporting found at the Alaska Department of Education website, which recently launched school-by-school statistics that drill down into the real costs, based on self-reporting by the districts.
The publication of the data is part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which requires greater public transparency for costs and other factors. Not all schools have complied with the reporting requirements, but the remaining ones have until the end of the school year to do so.
Home schools and home school programs are by far the least expensive to the State, ranging from $5,122 for Denali PEAK students to $11,400 for Delta/Greely Homeschool attendees.
HB 236 WOULD ADD EVEN MORE
But in the halls of the Legislature and in the education union establishment in Alaska, money is the object.
Rep. Andi Story of Juneau has introduced a bill to increase the base student allocation for schools, and the districts are now rallying support, pointing out that the base student allocation has not changed since 2017.
Thus, HB 236 would increase that base amount from $5,930 to $6,045 in the first year and to $6,155 per student in the second year.
That is roughly a $30 million per year increase to the state operating budget.
Juneau School District leaders are leading the charge, calling the current budget picture “grim,” since they are also running out of a two-year grant that they had won during the Walker Administration.
READING SCORES HIT NEW LOWS
Grim doesn’t even begin to describe Juneau’s reading scores, however. Less than 47 percent of students in the Juneau School District are reading at grade level.
At Harborview Elementary in Juneau, the reading proficiency is 40 percent, even though the per-student spend is $22,000.
In the Mendenhall Valley in Juneau, Riverbend Elementary scores higher at 45 percent in reading, while its per-student spend is lower at $21,100.
Both schools are rated ‘mid-poverty.” But surprisingly, so is Yakov E. Netsvetov on Atka, with its six attendees and its $139,000 spend per student.
Juneau students are, even while below average, still above average in Alaska, where the statewide average reading proficiency score is just 37 percent.
What’s worse, is that more than 60 percent of Alaska’s third graders are scoring below or far below proficient.
Rep. Story’s bill has no accountability measures attached to it. It’s a few lines on a page that add more money to all school districts to maintain the status quo.
That accountability piece for improving outcomes is found in Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Sen. Tom Begich’s Alaska Reads Act, legislation that would create a statewide K-3 reading program to improve reading outcomes.
