The Senate Finance Committee today introduced a pair of bills to cap government spending and establish a 50-50 split between dividends and state expenses from the limited annual revenue available from earnings reserve of the Permanent Fund.
Senate Bill 104caps government spending at $5 billion for fiscal year 2021, allowing for a growth rate based on inflation over the past five years.
“A spending cap gives the Legislature the discipline it needs to keep state spending at a reasonable level from one year to the next,” said Senator Natasha von Imhof, R-Anchorage, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee.
“With an effective spending cap and predictable revenue in place, the state could begin passing a budget on a biennial basis – providing the kind of stability Alaska’s private sector economy needs to grow,” she said.
Senate Bill 103splits revenue from the annual draw of the Permanent Fund’s earnings reserve equally between dividends and state expenses.
“The Senate is committed to protecting the Permanent Fund and dividends for future generations of Alaskans,” said Senator Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee. “SB 103 creates a revenue limit for government and ensures the dividend program survives by protecting it from being consumed by the operating budget. It draws a line in the sand beyond which the state cannot cross over and take from the dividend.”
Last year, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 26, which limits the annual draw from the Permanent Fund to 5.25 percent of the fund’s market value for five of the last six fiscal years.
After three years, the draw rate decreases to 5 percent. SB 26 did not, however, address the near 40-year-old dividend calculation, which is out of sync with the new endowment model for the Permanent Fund. SB 103 seeks to resolve that issue.
“SB 103 is a conversation starter,” said Sen. von Imhof. “Alaskans are struggling between our constitutional obligations to provide for education, public safety, and basic infrastructure and our commitment to a healthy dividend program. This bill seeks to strike the right balance.”
Last Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee discussed the interplay between the budget and dividends. Under a 50-50 split, eligible Alaskans would receive approximately $2,340 later this year.
SB 103 and SB 104 were referred to the Senate Finance Committee where a hearing is scheduled for both bills on Wednesday, April 10.
The “Liscomb Bone Bed” along the Colville River in Alaska’s North Slope is full of duck-billed dinosaur fossils.
Over 99 percent of the 6,000 dinosaur fossils pulled from the quarry are hadrosaurines, a branch of the hadrosaur, or non-crested duck-billed dinosaur tree.
A newly identified fossil, however, adds unexpected variety to the prehistoric Arctic ecosystem: Researchers found the fossilized remains of a lambeosaurine, a crested duck-billed dino, according to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
In 2014, paleontologists from the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas were examining fossils from the 70 million-year-old bone bed when they came across a fragment of skull that seemed different from the others.
Most of the bones in Liscomb came from a species of hadrosaur called Edmontosaurus, but the team believed this fragment might come from a theropod dinosaur. When that turned out not to be the case, the museum filed the bone fragment away with the other hadrosaurs.
Hokkaido (Japan) University graduate student Ryuji Takasaki came to the museum to study the hadrosaur fossils. He, too, picked up on the strange skull fragment.
Rep. Cathy Tilton was able to get an “intent language” amendment into the operating budget that ends state funding for elective abortions, and removed the $334,000 that pays for such abortions from the operating budget of the Department of Health and Social Services.
Rep. Kelly Merrick spoke first in favor of the amendment. She shared how she was born to a 17-year-old unwed mother who, rather than aborting her, gave her up for adoption. Merrick said she could think of no greater way of honoring her parents, who have since passed, than by supporting Tilton’s amendment.
The exact wording of the amendment is:
“No money appropriated in this appropriation may be expended for an abortion that is not a mandatory service required under AS 47.07.030(a). The money appropriated for Health and Social Services may be expended only for mandatory services required under Title XIX of the Social Security Act and for optional services offered by the state under that step plan for medical assistance that has been approved by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.”
The state paid for abortions for 805 women in 2018.
Rep. Gary Knopp voted in favor of the amendment, but not before declaring, “I believe deeply in a woman’s right to choose.” Both Rep. Andy Josephson and Neal Foster voted against the amendment, which passed 9-2.
Josephson said he questions the constitutionality of the amendment, a sentiment echoed by Rep. Jennifer Johnston, who ended up voting in favor of it.
The Juneau Empire reported Wednesday that the Department of Transportation intends to sell the fast ferries F/V Fairweather and Chenega in the coming months.
Ferry staff will be reassigned without any expected job losses, although they will technically be laid off this month.
The newspaper reported officials saying the state will begin operating at least one new ship this year, the F/V Tazlina, and expects to save about $400,000 in fuel costs by retiring the 15-year-old Fairweather.
Let’s be frank here for a moment: The Alaska Marine Highway System’s union model is outdated and once again shows how the tyranny of a small fraction of overpaid public employees are terrorizing the majority of us who barely make ends meet from month to month.
That’s the truth. I worked for the AMHS for one week. My entire job was to make sandwiches and salads and I was earning $21+ an hour.
Does that make sense to you?
During that week I also racked up a bunch of overtime and my paycheck for that week was more than most people make in a month.
Does that seem fair to you?
I was the bottom rung-entry level position employee, so, take a moment to imagine how much the rest are paid.
I wrote an editorial here responding to a citizen who made the crazy claim that “oversized PFD payments the governor proposes will harm Alaska…”
Read that again: “oversized PFD payments the governor proposes will harm Alaska…”
Let’s take our emotions out of the budget argument for a few seconds. Southeast, Alaska and Prince of Wales Island in particular has the highest unemployment rate in the state. We also have the lowest income in the entire state.
So, when it comes to getting $3,000 dollars in the Fall vs $0 because a minority of over-paid state employees want to keep their cushy jobs, the answer for what makes a difference to the poor and under-paid Islanders is easy:
$3,000 makes a huge difference.
When is the last time you used the Alaska Marine Highway? Once in the last five years? Does that merit you losing $3,000 a year?
Now, I get our kids use the ferry system for sporting events, however the kids in sports are a minority of the school population. Is it worth your child losing $3,000 for someone else’s kid to go to a basketball tournament in Petersburg?
These are all fact-based questions that we should be asking ourselves instead of getting emotional because you read some article from a newspaper and heard some talking points from a paid news anchor.
The AMHS, needs to change. And it will be difficult. It’s better to make the hard decisions now then keep kicking the hard decisions down the road like cowards.
The fast ferries should never have been built. We all know this. They cost too much, can’t navigate the channels efficiently, and are run by over-paid employees who constantly complain they don’t get paid enough.
As far as i’m concerned, good riddance! I’ll take my $3,000 dividend so I can pay off my credit card after paying to get my car fixed that broke down unexpectedly. Nobody expects me to get a bailout, so why does the AMHS expect the same?
The Alaska Democratic Party is proposing its most significant change to its presidential nominating system in decades. After a disastrous 2016, when most Alaska Democrats wanted Bernie Sanders for president, and yet the party ended up backing Hillary Clinton, the party is doing an overhaul. There were just too many disenchanted Democrats.
Caucuses by Democrats are participated in by a small percentage of voters. They typically take place in gymnasiums or large meeting facilities around the state, and people move from one side of a room to another to choose which candidate they are backing for the Democratic nomination. There’s a lot of lobbying that goes on in the process.
The Republicans conduct a presidential preference poll, conducting what is similar to an in-person election. Registered Republicans can vote and people cast ballots in boxes at local centers, and then go about their day. It’s not perfect but it allows broader participation. It is all run by volunteers, with oversight from the Republican National Committee.
Democrats are considering taking it a step further, including doing electronic ballot submission, absentee voting and progressive voting, where people rank their preferences. They would also have in-person voting centers across the state.
The party must submit its final plan to the Democratic National Committee and is seeking input from Democrats before doing so.
The draft rules for the Democrats’ primary indicates it would be a highly organized and complicated process that would be managed by volunteers, including these parameters:
Presidential candidates would file with the Alaska Democratic Party by Jan. 24, 2020.
A mailing will be sent to every registered Democrat in Alaska on Feb. 19, 2020 explaining how to cast a ballot by electronic submission, absentee, and in person voting. Information will be made available on the state party website, Facebook page and via email beginning Feb. 19.
Electronic voting will begin on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 and will close on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. Absentee Ballots must be postmarked by March 24 in order to be counted.
Primary day voting centers would be open from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 4 for in person voting in at least the following areas:
Municipality of Anchorage
Fairbanks/North Star Borough
City and Borough of Juneau
Mat-Su Borough
Kenai Peninsula Borough
Dillingham
Bethel
Nome
Kotzebue
Each Voting Center will process same day voter registration and changes in party affiliation. Voting Centers will use paper ballots and be staffed by trained volunteers working with local Democratic Party leadership in each area.
Additional communities and exact locations must be approved by the ADP Executive Committee by Oct. 2, 2019.
Results of the electronic voting, absentee voting, and in-person will be made publicly available no later than 11:30 p.m. AKDT, April 4, 2020, on the Alaska Democratic Party website.
Each House District will hold a House District Caucus on Saturday, April 18, 2020 to elect House District officers and delegates representing the house district to the 2020 State Party Convention.
Alaska Democratic Party State Convention will be held in Fairbanks May 15-17, 2020. National Delegates will be apportioned based on the results of the April 4 Party-Run Primary. Delegates elected to the State Convention will select the Delegates to the DNC Convention.
A 48-foot sperm whale was found dead on the east side of Lynn Canal, north of Berners Bay near Juneau in March. It’s the first time NOAA Fisheries has documented a dead sperm whale in the Inside Passage.
Marine mammal experts from NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Sitka Stranding Network, and University of Alaska performed an necropsy.
“This is an exceptional opportunity for a marine mammal biologist,” said Kate Savage, NOAA lead veterinarian on the necropsy. “There are a lot of unknowns around sperm whale biology and life history in Alaskan waters, so we could learn a lot from this stranding.”
On March 20, a team collected the whale’s teeth to determine age, blubber to check for contaminants, and a variety of tissue samples to examine DNA and other health indicators.
Researchers with the Southeast Alaska Sperm Whale Avoidance Projectare working to determine if the dead sperm whale is one of three known individuals to frequent Chatham Strait and Lynn Canal, based on tagging data collected in the past five years.
“We have photos of only three individual sperm whales which have been sighted in Chatham and Lynn Canal, and we would love to know if it is one of those individuals,” said necropsy team member Lauren Wild, a doctoral student with the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Science who works with SEASWAP.
SEASWAP is a unique collaboration between commercial fishermen, scientists, and fisheries managers. They use acoustics, tagging, tissue sampling, and photo-identification to learn more about sperm whales in Southeast Alaska. Their ultimate goal is to test deterrents and strategies to minimize interactions between the whales and fishermen.
Wild says nearshore waters are not typical sperm whale habitat, but the canyon-like depths of Chatham Strait make it highly productive. Lynn Canal gets narrower and shallower, but if there are abundant food sources, whales could be expected to explore farther north. The first official sighting of a sperm whale in Chatham Strait was in 2008 during an Alaska Department of Fish and Game sablefish survey, but there are anecdotal reports from before that time.
Scientists suspect the sperm whales first found the waters of the Inside Passage by following longline vessels into southern Chatham Strait. Most satellite tagging data indicate they have stayed in inside waters after the sablefish season closed, perhaps pursuing an abundant food source. In fact, the stomach of this animal contained almost exclusively beaks of squid, which Wild believes were magister armhook squid and have been seen in large quantities by fishermen in Lynn Canal.
Foraging is consistent with why sperm whales come to Alaska in the first place, and why they are all almost certainly male.
“The theory is that male sperm whales leave their natal grounds in the equatorial region between 10-12 years of age,” Wild added. “They come to Alaska to feed so they can get big and fat so they can be more competitive for breeding.”
Increased Sightings
Sightings of sperm whales are rare in Lynn Canal. That’s why NOAA wants to know if you see one. NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional Office has received two reports in recent months.
“The Alaska State Ferry reported seeing four sperm whales off False Point Retreat in December, and two in lower Lynn Canal near Point Howard early in March,” said the region’s Whale Alert expert and protected species biologist Kristin Mabry. “We don’t know if this is a new phenomenon or if people are just more aware of sperm whales in our area.”
Mabry says reports of whale sightings by the public can help protect whales from vessel strikes.
“Whale Alert is a NOAA app that anyone can use to report whale sightings. You don’t need to be in an area with cell service so long as your device is GPS enabled. The data you submit will be transmitted once you are in cell tower range.”
Real-time data from the Whale Alert app informs professional mariners when a whale is in the vicinity of their route so they can be extra vigilant and slow down. This helps to prevent vessel strikes.
“Of course, if you see something rare, we are always happy for you to call in the report as well. The number is (907) 586-7235,” added Mabry. “Photos are very helpful, especially for sperm whales or other rare species. It is very important for us to document sightings of these less seen species so that we can more accurately promote their conservation.”
A team of marine mammal experts perform a necropsy on a male sperm whale. (Johanna Vollenweider/NOAA)
Cause of Death
Necropsy findings indicate the male sperm whale near Berners Bay died from trauma consistent with a ship strike. The team documented fractured vertebrae and three deep propeller slices into the whale’s side.
“The space between the slices, the depth of the slices and associated damage indicate this whale was struck by a large vessel,” said veterinarian Kate Savage. “We also took samples that will help confirm our findings.”
Savage led a second marine mammal team to obtain stomach contents from the whale, as the incoming tide prevented collection of those samples during the first visit. The stomach contained lots of squid beaks, but no plastic and no sablefish parts. Multiple sperm whales have been found dead with significant amounts of plastic in their stomachs in recent years, so the team was pleased not to find any in this Alaskan whale.
“I don’t think this was one of the longline bandits,” said Lauren Wild, sperm whale researcher from Sitka. “The flukes of this young male do not match any individuals in our catalog.”
NOAA reminds the public that no parts of a marine mammal listed under the Endangered Species Act may be collected, except for authorized scientific purposes. When the second necropsy team returned to the whale carcass to collect stomach contents, someone from the public had removed and taken most of the lower jaw.
NOAA encourages whomever did this to return parts from this endangered animal to NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement. If you have information on this violation, or possible violations of our other federal marine resource laws, report it to the Office of Law Enforcement 24-hour hotline at (800) 853-1964, or the Alaska Division direct at (907) 586-9329.
You can almost feel the angst emanating from Juneau in the wake of a proposed ballot measure being certified that, if approved by voters, would move sessions of the Alaska Legislature to Anchorage.
Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer and the Department of Law cleared the way Wednesday for Equal Access Alaska to begin gathering the 28,501 signatures it will need to get the question on the ballot in 2020.
If the measure reaches the ballot and is approved by voters, it likely would cause a sea change in Alaska politics as more Alaskans finally would have access to lawmakers and the Legislature while the legislative session is underway.
You can be sure Juneau, as always when the question of moving the capital or Legislature comes up, will fight tooth and nail to keep the Legislature meeting in that Southeast city.
Read the rest of this opinion at Anchorage Daily Planet:
About 300 people gathered at the Anchorage Fire Department Training Center in Airport Heights on Wednesday for a ceremonial “reveal” of the newest pink “cancer awareness” fire truck, painted a Pepto-Bismol color to help call awareness to breast cancer. The truck it replaces will be moving to Kodiak.
THE PROCESS OF FUNDING STATE SERVICES CONTINUES TODAY
House Finance Committee trimmed education spending Wednesday, as it worked through dozens of amendments to the budget.
The committee voted to stop reimbursing school districts for the past debt they’ve incurred for capital projects.
Those costs — about $140 million a year — will now fall on the local districts and their taxpayers.The budget amendment was put forward by Rep. Ben Carpenter of Nikiski.
At least on this item, the committee agreed 7-4 with Gov. Michael Dunleavy, that local jurisdictions need to cover their construction costs — even if they incurred them during a time when the State of Alaska picked up the tab “subject to appropriation.”
For decades, local voters could incur bond debt for school construction and the State would make the payments. After all, the State of Alaska had the cash.
That ended in 2015 when the price of oil crashed. But the the old debts were grandfathered in and the Legislature has been appropriating payments for them. In 2018, the Legislature trimmed back to paying 75 percent of the debt, rather than 100 percent.
In Anchorage, these public debt payments will cost property taxpayers. A homeowner would see about $420 more in taxes tacked on for property valued at $331,000 (the median cost of an Anchorage home). That, on top of the $59.1 million school bond that Anchorage voters just passed during this week’s municipal election, which will cost that same homeowner another $50 a year. The cost of living in Anchorage will definitely go up.
Anchorage already has one of the highest median property taxes in the United States, ranking 103rd of the 3,143 counties in order of median property taxes, according to tax-rates.org.
But the property taxpayers in the Mat-Su will be the ones really taking the hit because that district is the fastest growing in the state and has had the most construction. The Mat-Su has grown 65 percent in the past 20 years, and voters approved a $241 million bond package in 2011, which they’ll be on the hook for without state reimbursement. It could cost local property taxpayers about $60 million more than the share of the bond they are already paying. The median property tax paid in the Mat-Su is $2,436.
Opponents of the cut say it’s just shifting the cost of school construction down to the local level. Supporters say that’s not a bad place for construction costs to land and will make local voters pay attention to what they are approving at the ballot box, since they will be unable to shift that cost to the State.
The committee thus far has made few cuts to its working budget, which is the one that former Gov. Bill Walker proposed in December. That budget has $1.6 billion more spending than the amended budget offered by Gov. Michael Dunleavy. The Democrat-controlled House is struggling to trim the unfunded spending in the Walker budget, and making the budget balance will require much of Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividends at this point, although that amount will depend on the final budget number and is subject to the governor’s veto.
The Senate will have its work cut out for it when the House votes on the floor and transmits its version of the operating budget in coming days. House Finance will continue working through the amendments today.
