The Anchorage Community Development Authority doesn’t like Gov. Dunleavy’s budget and appears to be blaming him for the failed economy of Anchorage under the ACDA’s watch over the past four years, although Dunleavy has been in office just three months.
Andrew Halcro, who heads the authority, wrote, and posted on Twitter:
At ACDA, our visionis for a prosperous Municipality of Anchorage facilitated by innovative community development and public parking. We work to make that happen by delivering quality development and public parking services within the Municipality of Anchorage.
ACDA has worked diligently the last four years to foster redevelopment in downtown Anchorage. Governor Dunleavy’s proposed budget shifts millions of dollars in higher property taxes to local developers in a market that is already challenged by some of the highest construction costs in the country.
The Governor’s proposed budget would severely impede our ability to execute our mission by making new construction and redevelopment less attractive, by shifting costs to property owners.
He prefaced his letter with: “Governor, please take your foot off our throat.”
Halcro is a former member of the House of Representatives and was a candidate for governor in 2006, getting 9.5 percent of the vote in the General Election. He ran for mayor of Anchorage in 2015, but lost and received a political appointment from Mayor Ethan Berkowitz.
ACDA is a municipal corporation that works toward “responsible development and redevelopment in Anchorage by forming partnerships and working with the community. ACDA also operates EasyPark which provides value to downtown in the form of affordable, convenient, and secure parking options.” One of Halcro’s signature achievements is a rooftop basketball court above the 5th Avenue EasyPark Garage.
It appears that Halcro wants either an income tax or to raid the Permanent Fund. Or something else. He doesn’t offer a solution, just states an objection. Halcro advocated for an income tax when he was in the Legislature, so at least he is consistent.
‘ALL CHILDREN ARE ABOVE AVERAGE’ IS UP FOR DISCUSSION
For 20 years, the Anchorage School District has had a policy of automatic promotion from grade to grade.
Last year, among the 3,500 third graders, only five were held back from going on to fourth grade. The same was true for second-graders and fifth-graders. After years of being advanced automatically, many students don’t have the basic skills they need for high school.
But social promotion is the Anchorage School District official policy, which has a written preference that students should be moved to the next grade with their classmates.
Board member Dave Donley has suggested a policy change in Memorandum 117: Instead of automatic promotion, educators should decide what is in the best interest of each individual child, how they are in their proficiency, special needs they may have, and parents should certainly have a say.
In other words, the policy should return the decision to a case-by-case basis, with parental input.
This policy change will be on tonight’s school board agenda for discussion..
School board meetings are available live on the municipality’s cable channel 9 and streamed on ASD’s YouTube channel. Board meetings will also be available 48 hours after the meeting’s conclusion in Board Docs.
School Board meetings are held at the ASD Education Center, 5530 E Northern Lights Blvd. The meeting starts at 7 pm.
The Presbytery of the Yukon has spoken: State government should not make unChristian cuts to state spending.
In a letter to Gov. Michael Dunleavy, the organization that represents Presbyterian churches from Anchorage north, including Utqiagvik, Delta Junction, and St. Lawrence Island, told Dunleavy that “Christ’s teachings and his living example lead us to care for all people, especially this vulnerable populace. If we are to follow this example, then funding for education, healthcare, prisons, and assistance to those experiencing poverty should be the last things cut.”
On KTUU last month, First Presbyterian Church’s The Rev. Matthew Schultz, whose wife was a senior member of the Bill Walker Administration, called the Dunleavy budget unChristian.
“Any act that hopes to be considered ‘Christian’ must take care of those who are the most vulnerable, and if we look at this budget, what we see is a budget that targets and impacts the most vulnerable,” Schultz told the reporter. “Those who are already hurting are going to be hurt even more. If you don’t want the label of being ‘un-Christian’ you have to start those cuts at the top with the people who are wealthy and powerful and comfortable.”
The Presbytery’s letter advised Dunleavy: “We also collectively and with one voice pray for your discernment realizing the state of Alaska’s economic situation. Like the church, you with the state legislature, are called to be good stewards of God’s resources, regardless of the scarcity or the plenty. As good stewards, we have the duty to make decisions that are sometimes hard, painful, and unpopular, and so we collectively pray for our state, its people, and our elected officials.”
The letter was signed by Sharon Rayt, the clerk of the Presbytery of the Yukon, which represents 21 churches across Alaska, with the exception of Southeast Alaska.
The Presbytery leaders may not realize that the Legislature is the appropriating body for the state.
CHURCH BECOMES POLITICAL
The politicization of the left-leaning PCUSA has led to a steady leakage of members, and a changing base for the church’s membership.
In December, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), sent a letter to Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, speaking against his position on companies that participate in boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
Bevin had signed an executive order to ban the awarding of state contracts to companies that support the boycott Israel movement.
It’s one of numerous letters the national Presbyterian Church has issued on political issues — from immigration policy to talks with North Korea — in recent months, as the church becomes more engaged in political movements.
UNION BOSS WEIGHS IN
In a similar news report last month, AFL-CIO Alaska President Vince Beltrami spoke out against the Alaska budget on KTUU:
Beltrami and his union was a supporter of Gov. Bill Walker until he decided to not run for re-election. After spending tens of thousands on that failed reelection effort, Beltrami quickly pivoted the union to support gubernatorial hopeful and well-known Democrat Mark Begich, who fell short in the November, 2018 General Election.
BOARD TO CONSIDER SCHOOLS PLAYING ‘STAR SPANGLED BANNER’ ONCE A WEEK
At Monday (March 4) night’s Anchorage School Board meeting, the board will take up the question of whether the National Anthem and the Alaska Flag Song should be played once a week in all schools. As in, played over the broadcast system in the schools.
Currently only four Anchorage schools do so — and they happen to be the top-ranked schools.
[Watch 7-year-old Maia Emma sing the Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key before a Seattle Sounders-Galaxy match last September:
The existing Anchorage School District policy is to promote and teach patriotism, such as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and “other patriotic activities” as identified by the board. But the board has never quite identified what those other patriotic activities are.
Board member Dave Donley says it’s time for the district to stop taking a knee for the National Anthem.
The board has held three governance committee meetings that dealt with Donley’s proposal. A survey of all the schools found that some were not even reciting the Pledge, as required, and the majority never played the National Anthem. Therefore, children are not learning it, nor are they learning the Alaska Flag Song.
The question will appear at the meeting as Memorandum 120, and public testimony will be heard, likely around 7:30 pm (meeting starts at 7 pm). The board meets in the Anchorage Education Center, 5530 East Northern Lights Blvd.
Note: There has been strong opposition from some other board members. The item is on the agenda shortly after the recognition of “Music in the Schools Month.”
I had the opportunity to attend Rep. Sarah Vance’s town hall meeting Saturday at the Kachemak Bay campus of Kenai Peninsula College.
The meeting was very well attended by a vocal and emotional crowd. There was much fear expressed about the cuts proposed in the governor’s budget and a strong appeal by the numerous teachers, students and others to protect the funding for the education system.
When I had the opportunity to speak, I expressed my interest in maintaining a strong and vibrant education system. However, I also stated my concern with the performance of an education system that in spite of what appears to be ample funding does not seem to produce results commensurate with the resources invested.
I stated that it is my understanding that Alaska spends more per student on education than most states. It was recently reported that the 4th grade reading scores for Alaska students put them dead last in the nation. I noted that this might have been a quirk in the data or testing process and that I looked for further evidence of the K-12 performance.
I then shared with the group the results of a review of transcripts from 2006 to 2015 done by the University of Alaska for first time freshmen enrolling in UA within one year of graduation. The report showed that statewide 70 percent of the freshmen had to take either remedial English or math or both before beginning their actual college courses.
I noted that the Homer High School principal has reported that our students do much better than state and national averages and the district superintendent has made similar claims about the students on the peninsula.
However, the data in this study don’t really support such claims. The report showed that 55 percent of the students from Kenai and Homer and 45 percent of the students from Soldotna had to take remedial courses. I stated that it seemed to me that something was wrong when, despite the relatively generous funding we have been providing, we got such results.
Here’s the interesting interaction. After the meeting, a teacher confronted me and said she was deeply offended by my comments and that the data I presented were only for UA, which did not give a full picture of the quality of the Homer students.
I told her I didn’t understand, and she said that UA is not a good university and the good students go out of state, which skews the data.
She further stated that UA being a state school takes all applicants, some of whom are not the best quality students. Therefore, the students would need to take remedial courses.
I asked her if she thought the UA was an average university. She said yes. I then asked her why she didn’t think an average high school graduate should be able to start regular course work at an average university. At that point we terminated the conversation.<
Something is not working in our K-12 system. I don’t think more money or even the same money will fix the problem. The legislature must use the budget to force a reevaluation, and hopefully, changes that will improve future results.
Guardian Flight announced today that its search for the missing plane in Frederick Sound has turned up what is believed to be an unknown part of the aircraft that went down in late January with three aboard, while on approach to the village of Kake, Alaska.
The plan had been on a medical transport mission, dispatched from Anchorage to pick up a patient, and the four aboard (including an unborn child) have not been found. The official search was called off, but the company has continued its search for the plane and its occupants.
“Our search team, utilizing side scanning sonar technology, has located what might possibly turn out to be an unknown part of our missing aircraft in the extended search area. Indications are the object is possibly 25 feet long by 6 to 8 feet wide. It is at approximately 600 feet deep in Frederick Sound and within a mile of the underwater beacon signals from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (Black Box). In order to properly identify the object, our next step is to re-launch a submersible Remotely Operated Vehicle, which will take a number of days to accomplish. We are hopeful that this might be a positive step in the process to recover our missing friends and return them to their families. We will keep this space updated as soon as we know more,” said Randy Lyman, Guardian Flight’s senior vice president of operations.
The three missing and presumed lost are pilot Patrick Coyle, 63, flight nurse Stacie Rae Morse, 30, and flight paramedic Margaret Langston Allen, 43, all based in Juneau. Morse was carrying an unborn child, due in April.
ORGANIZED PUBLIC SERVANTS ARE SHOWING UP TO PROTEST CUTS
By ART CHANCE SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
There are about 15,000 unionized State employees, over 10,000 unionized teachers, tens of thousands more unionized employees of political subdivisions, and still several thousand unionized private sector employees in Alaska.
There are also thousands of unionized federal employees in the State, and while the federal employees don’t always share the same interests as the State and local employees, they will usually help them protect their interests.
Art Chance
Many of the unions have some sort of release time that allows them to get employees off their regular duties for union “business,” which includes union political activities. The 8,500-member General Government Unit of State employees gets to take one day of paid leave each year from each member of the bargaining unit; that is 8,500 x 7.5 hour days with pay that they can devote to whatever the union wants them to do. That is about five man-years of paid time. Most of the other unions have something similar.
The unions all have the home addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of every member of their bargaining unit, and the State, using taxpayer money, prepares an updated version of those lists for them every month.
Even though it is unconstitutional, most employers are still handing out union membership and dues forms and to some degree encouraging the employees to join and pay.
The United States Supreme Court’s Hudson decision in 1986 outlawed compulsory union membership in the public sector, yet when I became Alaska’s director of labor relations in 2003, half my labor agreements still had compulsory membership, and when I told the unions the compulsory membership provisions had to go, I was on the front page of the newspaper for “union busting.”
This week’s show trial of the Dunleavy budget wasn’t to solicit public opinion; it was to allow the unions and other interest groups to mob the hearings, and why in the World would Republicans with two brain cells to rub together agree to have the “hearings” on territory owned by the National Extortion, excuse me, Education Association?
Few everyday Alaskans know or care the political leanings even of their next door neighbors. Maybe some activist Community Council or neighborhood association types have a phone tree or email list of people in the neighborhood.
But the unions and other interest groups that live off government spending can mobilize every member of their constituency instantly, using computer resources that you pay for, and turn out significant numbers of their constituency for anything. When Pravda, excuse me, the Anchorage Daily News says “some Alaskans” want the Permanent Fund Dividend cut, what they’re really saying is that a mob organized by unions and interest groups showed up at a hearing and said they wanted the dividend to go to their own wages and benefits.
We can’t fix this until we wrest control of the House of Representatives away from communists and quislings, but we need to reinstitute the provisions of the Hatch Act in Alaska; the only political activity a public employee should be able to participate in or contribute to is closing the curtain and casting his/her personal vote: no contributions. No signs, no public testimony or statements, no union or association PACS. If you get money from the State government, you simply don’t have a political opinion, other than behind the curtain in a voting booth.
This has long been an issue in American politics. One facet of the “irrepressible conflict” between the North and the South was since the Lincoln Administration was elected with no support from Southern political figures, Lincoln would be free to make federal political appointments in the South without consideration of the opinion of Southern political figures. The Southern fear was that the Lincoln Administration would appoint abolitionists to federal positions in the South.
In those days it was only the postmaster, mail-carriers, and customs house workers and the like, at most a few hundred in each state. Today it is thousands or tens of thousands of public employees in each district.
The US nibbled at the edges of the issue for the better part of a century and it came to a head in the 1938 Election when it was evident and offensive even to Democrats that the FDR administration had used federal employees and federal power to influence the election, and specifically by using Works Progress Administration employees to influence the election The WPA was the ‘30s version of Comrade Obama’s “Stimulus,” a way to use the federal treasury to give “walking around money” to Democrats.
It was blatant enough that even Democrats joined the Republicans in tamping it down with restrictions on political activity by federal employees and those who received federal funds or federal contracts in The Hatch Act of 1939.
The Hatch Act has been under assault by Democrats since it was enacted, since it is sorta’ their bread and butter. What little of The Hatch Act the Clinton Administration didn’t neuter, Comrade Obama took care of, so today it is essentially meaningless and the State law analogs that prohibit state employees from participating in partisan politics have become equally meaningless. The reality is that public employees are a European-style socialist workers’ party and despite “Janus” they still have the power to compel political contributions.
President Trump has not yet been able to wrest control of the federal bureaucracy from the Democrat-controlled “Deep State,” so no relief is available from the federal government. It is up to the State to take back control of our political system. I’m not sure it could be done even with Republican control of both bodies and the governor; I tried to pass some rather mild amendments to PERA when we had a veto-proof majority of the Legislature, and I couldn’t do it; there are a lot of really stupid Republican elected officials.
It would likely take an Initiative, and that would take a lot of money and organization, but it could be done. Until it is done, the government of Alaska will be of, by, and for, unionized public employees, the government healthcare racket, and the education racket.
Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available at Amazon. He also writes theater reviews for Must Read Alaska.
THE LIBERAL ENCLAVE IN DISTRICT 31 WAS OUT IN FORCE
In Homer, Alaska, 308 people attended the town hall with Rep. Sarah Vance at the Kachemak Bay campus of Kenai Peninsula College on Saturday.
Roughly 80 percent of those attending were unhappy with the governor’s budget, which is $1.6 billion smaller than the budget proposed by former Gov. Bill Walker.
They were also unhappy that Vance was before them as a state representative, rather than former Rep. Paul Seaton, who Vance beat by 55 to 44 percent in November.
Many who spoke were distraught. Several were angry, their voices shaking as they tried to control their rage. Some cried, others interrupted Vance, and a few frothed as they demanded that she work to tax oil companies more, institute an income tax, and use some of the Permanent Fund dividend to pay for government.
They exhibited all the early stages of grief for a state that has run out of money to spend, and a governor not willing to reach into people’s pockets for more.
There was not just disapproval, but palpable hatred in the air at the Homer town hall. What was to be a “conversation” turned into a browbeating by the Left against an upstart Republican who had the support of a large majority of her district’s voters — just not those in Homer.
Clearly, the average Homer attendee did not accept the Nov. 6 election. They didn’t get their choice — Mark Begich for governor — and they don’t like Gov. Michael Dunleavy, who won over Begich, 51 to 44 percent.
They did not vote for Vance, and they are in disbelief that she won.
One member in the crowd asked Vance why she didn’t start with the budget of former Gov. Bill Walker, the governor who didn’t run for reelection because he and his administration had collapsed in failure.
Vance held her own. Without any staff to assist her, and without police presence in the room (as Rep. Gary Knopp had two weeks ago at his Kenai town hall), she answered questions calmly and compassionately, while facing a hostile crowd that could barely contain its anger.
She never broke a sweat, but she teared up at one point with emotion as she looked out at the teachers in the room and empathized with their pain and their fear of the unknown for what budget cuts mean in their classrooms. After all, she has children in the Homer public school system as well.
Many in the room — as many as 60 percent — were teachers [edit: or with the education community], and there were some well-coached students who spoke from scripts.
A couple of members of the Homer City Council attended and muttered — within earshot of others — that Vance was dumber than a box of rocks. They walked out early.
A common theme in Homer was that Vance was not representing their viewpoints or their needs. They wanted no cuts to government, just new revenues, especially on oil companies, and a progressive income tax for Alaskan workers.
Vance said that she doesn’t consider an income tax as a source of revenue she would support, as that’s not what the voters mandated in November. Vance also offered that the most an income tax could generate would be about $350 million, not nearly enough to cover anything but the basic inflation and rising health care costs for school staff.
The budget deficit Alaska faces is so large, in fact, that it would take $2,171 from every man, woman, and child in Alaska to cover it, or nearly $8,700 from a family of four. In a state that has 220,000 people on Medicaid, that amount would fall on the shoulders of just those who are working, and would go well into five figures per family.
Vance explained that government is already using a portion of the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve Account to pay for government services.
The crowd didn’t hear her, however. They were not really there to listen; they were there to tell her how to do things their way, and some of them resorted to shouting at her to shut up and listen to them.
Why did Dunleavy dismantle the Walker Climate Change Task Force, they asked. Does she support the governor’s budget – yes or no? Why wasn’t she using the “four pillar” tax plan of former Rep. Paul Seaton?
The few supporters there were in the audience remained mainly quiet, not prone to the theatrics of the opposition.
Vance had a more courteous reception when she held a town hall meeting in Ninilchik on Friday. Although people in the northern part of District 31 had opinions and concerns about budget cuts, particularly for education, they didn’t present as a seething mob.
When asked by a reporter how she had been able to maintain her composure and compassion during the Homer town hall meeting, Vance said, “I have people praying for me and that really makes a difference.”
THE INFECTIOUS DISEASE HAS NOT SPREAD IN ALASKA — YET
Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 21, the Centers for Disease Control has reported 159 cases of measles in 10 states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.
Measles is a highly contagious disease. It can be deadly, particularly for those who have other medical issues or frailties. Like mumps, pertussis, tetanus, and diphtheria, it’s prevented through vaccination.
While 159 is not a big number, it’s more than all the cases in the U.S. in 2017. As of Friday, 71 of the cases were in Washington state, where Alaskans travel routinely. Both Alaska and Washington state have lower-than-average immunization rates.
The current outbreak led to a congressional hearing on Feb 27 that was not widely covered by the media, what with all the other political drama of the week concerning the testimony of Michael Cohen.
“I do believe that parents’ concerns about vaccines leads to undervaccination, and most of the cases that we’re seeing are in unvaccinated communities,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce:
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services issued a public health advisoryin late January with information about the disease and vaccinations.
Does the country have an emerging epidemic, or are fears overblown?
All of the outbreaks have been linked to people traveling overseas who were not vaccinated against the disease, and who brought it home with them. The Philippines, where many Alaskans also travel, is a hot spot for measles, with over 11,000 cases this year alone. One cruise ship traveler to Alaska last year had measles and ended up in the hospital in Ketchikan. The teenager had acquired the disease in Thailand and had not been vaccinated.
In 2000, measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. But a growing number of American parents have become wary of the large number of vaccinations being forced on young children, with concerns that some of the vaccinations may lead to serious side effects such as autism or death. Thus, the herd immunity that protected the unvaccinated has diminished.
The anti-vaccination movement is growing across the globe, to the extent that the World Health Organization identified it as one of the top 10 global health threats of 2019.
The hesitancy comes from sincerely held believes that there are unknowns regarding vaccines, as well as strong streak of libertarian resistance to having government force vaccines on children.
In late January, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency in response to confirmed cases of measles in Clark and King Counties, where more than half of all confirmed cases of measles in the United States have occurred. Now, lawmakers in Olympia are considering tightening the “opt-out” rules that allow parents to avoid immunizing their children by simply checking a box that states they have a religious or personal belief that exempts them from the mandatory shots.
While 17 states allow a “personal belief” exemption, Alaska is not one of them, which means only religious exemptions exist for not immunizing children before they are allowed to enroll in school or at some day care facilities. If an outbreak occurs in a community, those non-vaccinated children can ben excluded from school attendance until the disease runs its course.
YOUR OPINION?
What is your opinion on mandatory vaccinations for Alaska’s children? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
