Page 1570 – Must Read Alaska

House Democrat majority: ‘More than $1 billion in new taxes — or else’

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April 13, 2017

Income tax, oil tax: Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, Rep. Jason Grenn, U-Anchorage, Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, and Rep. Daniel Ortiz, R-Ketchikan, joined with Democrats in voting for SB 26, which requires an income tax.

Taxes — more than $1 billion worth — are now a game of chicken between the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate.

And the Democrat-controlled governor.

Senate Bill 26 came out of the House of Representatives today on a 22-18 vote — and its new tax language found immediate approval from Gov. Bill Walker.

The legislation lined up House lawmakers on one side or the other of a proposed income tax that would generate between $650 million and $700 million from Alaskans’ paychecks.

Another several million would be generated by new oil taxes.

Although Senate Bill 26 doesn’t deal with the income tax except as a condition, it was laden down with what senators called a “poison pill.”

“The House continues to attempt to find ways to pass an income tax and change our oil and gas tax structure, and their latest version of Senate Bill 26 is a poor attempt to do so,” said Sen. Anna MacKinnon. “We are part of a bicameral Legislature that should work independent of each other, properly vetting and improving ideas and concepts as we work through the processes laid out in our respective bodies.”

The bill says that either senators agreed to pass House’s Democrats’ $650 million in income taxes (HB 115), and $350-$900 million or more in brand new oil taxes (HB 111), or SB 26 dies. SB 26 restructures the Permanent Fund so earnings can be used more effectively to pay dividends to Alaskans, and pay for state services.

Democrats said: It’s all or nothing.

Gov. Bill Walker sat in the House Gallery while the bill was being debated this afternoon and smiled broadly, visibly pleased when it passed. His office issued a press release stating his satisfaction at the House’s “courage.”

The courage was that the majority caucus, with help from five non-Democrats, is holding the Senate’s feet to the fire on taxes. Walker has sent word to legislators that it’s all or nothing for him too — he wants an income tax and higher oil taxes. And that means using SB 26 as a high-stakes bludgeoning tool.

Except that this Republican-led Senate is as hard against an income tax as the Democrat-led House is in favor of one.

The $650 million in income taxes, which is the government take currently outlined in a bill that has not yet passed the House, averages to $2,600 per actual Alaska worker.

House members that voted in favor of the SB 26 income tax are now on the record. That includes some for whom such a vote will factor into their next election in 2018: Rep. Jason Grenn, an undeclared freshman from Anchorage, and Rep. Daniel Ortiz, an undeclared representative from Ketchikan. Also voting for income taxes were Rep. Louise Stutes of Kodiak, Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux of Anchorage, and Rep. Paul Seaton.

“You don’t wash down a glass of medicine by chasing it with two glasses of poison. That’s what Democrats did by linking passage of SB 26 to income tax and oil tax hikes,” – Rep. Dan Saddler.

It was a case of vote trading, said Lance Pruitt.

“I don’t trade votes,” he said. “This bill asks me to tie my support for Senate Bill 26 to two legally unrelated bills. That feels unethical and is not how I evaluate policy.”

“Topics of this magnitude should stand on their own merits and be considered and vetted independent of the others,” Sen. MacKinnon said. “The Senate believes a spending limit is necessary and we will evaluate the best course of action for that concept. We remain committed to cutting the budget, reforming government to operate more efficiently, and restructuring the Permanent Fund to help solve the majority of our fiscal challenge.”

The Senate has proposed $250 million in cuts to help offset the impacts of SB 26, which sets the Permanent Fund dividend at a level rate of about $1,200 per year.

Fish and Game says Kodiak ad misleads on sovereignty, fishing

Suzanne Downing

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April 12, 2017

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*Beach seining at the mouth of the Karluk River, (historic photo from Kodiak Maritime Museum)*

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game published a notice today setting the record straight after a paid advertisement showed up in the Kodiak Daily Mirror.

The advertisement claimed that federal regulation allows Native inhabitants of the Native village of Karluk and its vicinity to commercially fish without a license in certain waters of the Kodiak area.

The advertisement goes on to say that non-Natives may not fish there if it interferes or restricts fishing by Natives. Further, the ad states there is “no trespassing on Karluk Indian Reservation.”

According to the Department of Fish and Game, the “Karluk Indian Reservation” was revoked in 1971 by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, “and there is no longer legal authorization for the cited regulation. Accordingly, the Department of Law advises that 25 CFR 241.5 is not valid or enforceable by federal authorities. Fishing in the Kodiak Area is regulated by the State of Alaska, and all persons commercially fishing within the Kodiak Area are subject to all applicable state statutes, regulations and emergency orders.”

The newspaper ad could very well be a legal set-up. This summer, when the salmon return to the Karluk River, some carefully chosen member of the Karluk tribe may be sent out to fish illegally. That’s when the State Troopers would have to intervene, a confrontation would ensue, and then the tribe would have a case to take to court to re-establish its sovereignty.

Access to the Karluk River has been a sore spot for some time, but the only place in Alaska where a tribe has anything like the authority that the Karluk Native Village is claiming is the Metlakatla Indian Reservation.

The “no trespassing on Karluk Indian Reservation” may also be a set up for confrontation this summer.

Under state law, the public has the right to use and have access to the Karluk River. The water is available for public use for the purposes of fishing, boating, and other activities.

This situation is similar in some ways to the conflict with Ahtna Corporation over access to the Lake Klutina area — i.e., there are disputes over easements and permitted uses, such as camping, without the Native Corporation’s permission.

The Klutina case is now factoring into the confirmation hearings for Acting Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth, who is trying to settle that case out of court and away from public scrutiny.

A few years ago, former Sen. Al Kookesh got caught fishing with a beach seine net and more sockeye salmon than was allowed in Kanalku Bay near Angoon. Prosecutors said he and two others caught 148 sockeye, but had permits for 60. He took the case to court and claimed the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has no authority over subsistence uses.

His wasn’t a protest issue, but a claim that he made after he was caught. He now works on the staff of Gov. Bill Walker.

A protest fishery took place on the Kuskokwim River in 2012, when the State closed the river to subsistence king salmon fishing to protect the dwindling stock.

About 60 elders went out to fish and many were cited. The case went to the Supreme Court, which upheld the State’s right to protect the fishery.

As for the Karluk, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s web site treats the site delicately, with maps and detailed explanations of access points and private land. These efforts are an attempt to prevent conflict before it happens, a desire that may or may not be reciprocated by the Karluk tribe.

Jan Faiks, co-author of the Constitutional Budget Reserve, 1945-2017

Suzanne Downing

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April 12, 2017

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Sen. Jan Faiks of Anchorage, the first woman in U.S. history elected as presiding officer of a state legislative body, has died.

Faiks was Alaska Senate President in 1987-1988. She died April 10, 2017 after being diagnosed with brain cancer last year. The 71-year-old former lawmaker was living in Amelia Island, Fla. with her husband, former Alaska State Sen. Lloyd Jones, at the time of her passing.

The Constitutional Budget Reserve that the Alaska Legislature is depending on today to meet State spending during a period of lower oil revenues, owes its existence to her and a handful of other legislators who sponsored it in 1988. Faiks had actually introduced the legislation a session earlier, but it took a second try to get it through.

ELECTED IN 1982

Gov. Bill Walker ordered all Alaska flags lowered today and Thursday in Faiks’ honor.

Born in Long Island, New York in 1945, Faiks graduated from Florida State University with a math degree and was a teacher, cheerleading coach, and counselor for the Anchorage School District from 1968 to 1978. She was named the district’s Outstanding Secondary Teacher in 1977. She was elected in 1982 to the Alaska State Senate.

Cheryl Frasca of Anchorage, who was working for Rep. Al Adams of Kotzebue as a legislative aide on the Finance Committee, remembers why Faiks ran for office — Sen. Bill Ray of Juneau goaded her into it.

“She was involved in what was known as the Anchorage Women’s Club Free Committee, which was a committee that was working on recommendations for revising the uniform rules for how the Legislature did its business,” Frasca said. Members of the group included her good friend, Jan Bomhoff.

The changes the women wanted were procedures like how the conference committee on the operating budget would function. It had been a free-for-all, with legislators free to put anything into the budget during conference committee. The women also wanted notice of committee meetings to be published a week in advance. At the time, committees met with little notice.

“She and some members of the group went to Juneau to talk to legislators about the changes they proposed, and she met with Sen. Ray. He said something to the effect of, ‘If you think you’re so smart, why don’t you just run?’ So she did.”

Faiks served in the Alaska Senate from 1983 through 1990, and was also a businesswoman during her career as well as the proprietor of her own llama farm. She was a founder of the Alaska Zoo.

She was on the board of directors and chaired the legislative action committee for the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, was president of the Anchorage Symphony, and was a member of World Affairs Council and many other organizations that continue to be part of Alaska civic life today.

“Jan was classy,” Frasca remembers. “She dressed gorgeously and decorated her legislative office with her own money. She really ratcheted up the professionalism during her freshman year, when she was Senate Rules chair.

Faiks also chaired the Finance and Judiciary committees before becoming president.

ORIGINAL CBR HAD APPROPRIATION LIMITS

As originally introduced, the Constitutional Budget Reserve had an appropriation limit built into it. The original legislation (SJR 40 in 1987) did several other significant things: It provided for distribution of the Permanent Fund earnings, with 40 percent to dividends; 30 percent back into the Permanent Fund; and 30 percent to a Constitutional Budget Reserve. The proposed appropriation limit was designed so that revenue that exceeded the limit would go into the reserve fund.

That bill had 13 co-sponsors — both Democrats and Republicans — including Rick Halford, Joe Josephson, Fred Zharoff, John Binkley, Mitch Abood, Willie Hensley, Jack Coghill, Bettye Fahrenkamp, Rick Uehling, Jim Duncan, Vic Fischer, and Lloyd Jones.

By 1989, however, it was pared down, and what came out of the final legislation, SJR 5, was the Constitutional Budget Reserve we know today.

“Just imagine how different the discussion would be today if this had been addressed nearly 30 years ago,” said Frasca, who noted that Sen. Faiks was not only great with numbers and llamas, but she was thinking far into the future for Alaska.

After serving two four-year terms, Faiks earned her law degree at Georgetown University School of Law in Washington, D.C. and began practicing in Maryland and the District of Columbia. According to an obituary written by Dean Fosdick, former Associated Press bureau chief for Alaska (and friend of Faiks), she also spent seven years as a congressional staffer and investigative counsel assigned to such high-profile projects as updating voting procedures following the George W. Bush vs. Al Gore presidential election.

Faiks served briefly as Assistant Secretary of Mine Safety and Health Administration with the U.S. Dept. of Labor, and was a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association until her retirement in 2013.

Faiks is survived by her husband Lloyd Jones and his three children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Survivors also include a sister, Nance Jo Ogozalek of Tennessee, and an uncle, Dr. Stan Carson, of Huntington Beach, Calif.

Alaska governor struggles for approval; Begich circles

Suzanne Downing

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April 12, 2017

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Gov. Bill Walker’s popularity has slipped in the past 12 months. The Alaska governor who ran as a nonpartisan candidate is now the fifth least approved of governor in the nation.

According to MorningConsult.com, the five worst-ranked governors are Chris Christie of New Jersey, Sam Brownback of Kansas, Dan Malloy of Connecticut, Rick Snyder of Michigan, and Bill Walker of Alaska.

Walker’s disapproval rating is 53 percent, and just 43 percent of those surveyed approve of his performance..

That rating is not as bad as the one found by the Ivan Moore poll, which was reported by the Alaska Dispatch News last fall. In that poll, Walker’s approval rating was 32 percent.

In the MorningConsult poll, more than 85,000 registered voters evaluated the job performance of their governors between January and March. (Full Methodology).

Carol Carman, who is the Republican chair of the District 9 Alaska Republicans, said many Alaskans are disappointed in Walker.

“Gov. Walker went to conservatives and talked like one, so many voted him into office. Now he makes appointments like Drew Phoenix to the Alaska Human Rights Commission, which will only serve to persecute us,” said Carman, who is a conservative Christian. “His economic policies are ruining our state. During our time of severe recession, instead of tightening the government’s belt through cuts, his proposal is to throw every kind of tax at us that he can.”

Walker came into office as a nonpartisan governor, after realizing he could not win the Republican primary. After the primary ended, he forged an agreement with the Alaska Democrats, who withdrew their candidate, Byron Mallott. Mallott then ran on the ticket with Walker and serves as his lieutenant governor.

Since taking office, he has pushed for income taxes, fuel taxes, corporate taxes, and taxes on oil production. He has not paid exploration companies the incentives they are owed and he confiscated half of Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividends last year.

All of these actions have been unpopular, but the income tax push has been disastrous for him, said Tuckerman Babcock, chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.

“Governor Walker seems to think that a five percent cut in state [operating] spending is a disaster, but he has no problem with a seven percent cut to people’s income through a tax,” said Babcock. “He’s earning the nickname ‘Governor Taker.'”

“Governor Walker governs from the far left,” Babcock said. “He’s given up state sovereignty, and each year he introduces an unbalanced budget.”

In a poll commissioned by the Mark Begich-Jim Lottsfeldt financed MidnightSunAk blog, the Democrats appear to be trying to lure Joe Miller into the governor’s race for 2018, saying he would dominate the field.

As next year’s elections loom on the horizon and Walker’s approval ratings continue to sink, Mark Begich has begun circling the field. Begich’s polling shows that his best shot for winning is to ensure that conservatives have to choose between Joe Miller, Bill Walker, and staying home.

Political observers say that the Alaska Democrats are unlikely to yield the field as they did in 2014, when they ran no one at all for governor, and threw their lot in with Walker.

Governor strikes back, in seven Pioneer Home tweets

Suzanne Downing

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April 11, 2017

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Gov. Bill Walker shares a laugh with public employee union representative Jim Duncan. The Governor’s Office issued dire warnings last week that Pioneers Homes would have to close unless more revenue was found. Today, he took to Twitter for damage control.

Gov. Bill Walker denied that he cut the Palmer Veterans and Pioneers Home in a series of messages today on Twitter.

And then he back-tracked and said that cutting the home was the only choice he had. The entire series ended up looking more like an incoherent rant than a form of budget diplomacy.

[Read: Governor threatens to close Pioneers Homes; residents told to prepare]

In some Twitter messages, Walker tried to blame the cut on the Alaska Senate, not acknowledging that the Senate had given him unallocated cuts of 5.7 percent for the Department of Health and Social Services that he recently decided must fall on the Pioneer Homes, which happen to be a very small portion of the DHHS budget.

And then the waffling began. Walker began by saying his budget included money for the Pioneers’ Homes.

Walker neglected to say that the Senate budget also had funding for the Pioneers Homes. It just asked him to make some cuts in the DHSS budget. Walker tweeted out a photo of the budget that showed where the cuts had been made, without disclosing that he knew the cuts were parked in a particular division but that the Senate was giving him wide latitude.

Walker went on to tweet about how his father was housed at the Pioneer Home and that he’d fight to make sure “our seniors are not displaced from their homes.”

But he also tweeted out that he has no choice:

But in a memo sent out last Friday, Anthony Newman, the legislative liaison at DHSS had a slightly different version of the facts:

Copied on Newman’s memo were Commissioner Valerie Davidson and Walker functionaries throughout the administration. In other words, Newman was not sending this memo on his own — it had been approved up the chain of command. This was a Walker directive.

Is this a ham-handed version of the old Washington Monument game, where the U.S. Park Service would close the Washington Monument in response to any budget cuts, looking to pressure lawmakers into restoring the cut funding?

Senator Anna MacKinnon, co-chair of Finance, said it was a travesty for the governor to have allowed the memo to go out.

“It’s horrible. To scare senior citizens who are in Alaska homes? Who would do that? We are only partway through a process and while we want cuts, he has the greatest flexibility to make sure they are meaningful cuts,” she said.

She added that it appeared to be targeted at the most conservative area of the state.

Sen. Shelley Hughes wrote in her newsletter earlier today:

“Our seniors deserve respect and care, and it was troubling to me to learn on Friday that the administration had unnecessarily caused tremendous anxiety among seniors by informing residents of the Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer that closure of their facility is looming this summer.

“A $6.5 million reduction can be moved and absorbed elsewhere in the Department of Health and Social Services’ $1+ billion budget at the governor’s and his commissioner’s discretion. In fact, the DHSS Commissioner has been granted the unusual authority to move up to $25 million from one appropriation to another for situations just as this. (Other department heads typically do not have this kind of leeway.)

Hughes also pointed out that $6.5 million isn’t a final number. The budget work will continue in the House and Senate Conference Committee, if the House ever allows the budget to go for its up and down procedural vote.

“Our precious elderly should not be used as a political football in an attempt to pressure lawmakers to pass taxes. I and the Mat-Su delegation as well as other legislators are working on this issue,” Hughes wrote.

Walker is playing the same game, cutting that portion of the bloated DHHS budget that has the most public support and is likely to generate the most outrage.

Clearly, this administration is deeply committed to staving off any cuts to Alaska’s massive state operating budget, even if it means frightening senior citizens.

House Democrats holding operating budget back, won’t vote

Suzanne Downing

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April 10, 2017

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Rep. Charisse Millett, Republican House Minority leader, argues against HB-111, a Democrat-sponsored bill to increase oil taxes. Earlier, she was dismayed that the House Democrats tabled the operating budget, holding up progress on the one mandate the Legislature has.

The House debated oil and gas tax credits on the House floor today.

House Bill 111 is the 43rd oil and gas tax restructuring bill to be offered in the Legislature in the past nine years, pointed out House Minority Leader Charisse Millett, who said she would be a no vote. It has passed, 21-19.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS WON’T MOVE OPERATING BUDGET

What isn’t up for a vote is the only thing the House absolutely has to do constitutionally: Pass a budget.

The state’s operating budget came back from the Senate to the House for an up or down vote, and today it was put back in the “limbo pile,” rather than move forward. The Democrat-run majority simply voted to hold the bill.

House Republicans were mystified. After all, the budget cannot be hammered out in conference committee if the House doesn’t vote it up or down.

With five days to go until the 90-day session is supposed to end, there is no end in sight. No conference committee. No budget. And no sense of urgency from the House majority Democrats.

“Refusing to send the budget to conference committee — that is children digging in their heels and throwing a tantrum,” said former Rep. Mike Hawker, who has been observing the proceedings from afar.

“Conference committee is a ministerial and routine step forward, where you can start debating the differences in a formal setting. For them to not do this is childish.” – Mike Hawker

*Rep. Ivy Spohnholz argues in favor of increased oil taxes today on the House floor, saying HB-111 is a good bill: “It’s our oil.”*

The operating budget should already be in conference committee, he said. “Everyone knows the sequence of events that must occur — the House passes the operating budget, sends it to the Senate, and the Senate does what it does and sends it back. Then the House says, ‘we don’t like that,’ and they all sit down at the conference table and debate it.”

OIL AND GAS TAXES JACKED UP AGAIN?

HB-111 restructures and dismantles Senate Bill 21. It is a three- to four-fold increase in taxes when oil prices are low.

The genesis behind HB-111 was to adjust the cash flow credits, but has now become a minimum tax.

“We’ve made modest changes,” said Rep. Geran Tarr, before the House voted along caucus lines, 21-19 in favor of a bill that was introduced just four days earlier. No public testimony was taken, and industry leaders were not allowed to provide comment.

It’s likely when HB-111 arrives at the Senate for consideration, it will receive a cool response.

Alaska Fish and Game embarks on ‘Siberian tit’ chickadee housing study

Suzanne Downing

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April 9, 2017

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Alaska Department of Fish and Game is embarking on an ambitious study of gray-headed chickadee nesting boxes and their possibilities at the confluence of the Siksikpuk and Chandler Rivers on the North Slope.

The department has filed with the Department of Natural Resources for a permit to install up to 20 bird boxes for a pilot project “to determine if gray-headed chickadees will nest in boxes.”

The boxes will be installed in late April. Those wishing to comment on the proposed activity should do so no later than April 18 by 5 pm.

Written comments must be received by the Department of Natural Resources Division of Mining, Land and Water at 3700 Airport Way, Fairbanks, AK 99709 by that date.

Questions concerning this proposal or requests to view the full application packet should be directed to Becky Baird, Telephone: 451-2732; Fax: 907-451-2751, or e-mail: [email protected].

The department notice advises that “After review and adjudication, we may issue a permit with stipulations for the activity. The activity may be modified during the review and adjudication process.”

The gray-headed chickadee is also known as the Siberian Tit. It is one of four chickadees that has been identified in the state and makes it looks a lot like the common boreal chickadee, but with larger white patches on its cheeks.

It also makes a different call, described as a “dee–deer” or “pee–vee.” For many years, chickadees have nested in forests and stream-side habitats, but for purposes unknown the Department of Fish and Game is interested in housing them in boxes.

Among endangered birds, the gray-headed chickadee is leasted in the “of least concern” category, according to Wikipedia.

Attempts to locate the exact study details or rationale were unsuccessful as the state’s web page relating to that item was not loading properly on Sunday and other Fish and Game pages pertaining to the elusive bird were also unavailable.

http://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/View.aspx?id=185276

However a cached version of the study details and permit identifiers are below.

Governor threatens to close Pioneers Homes; residents told to prepare

Suzanne Downing

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April 9, 2017

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Col. Bryan Radliff, 477th Fighter Group commander, speaks with a resident of Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer, Alaska on Veterans Day. F-22 pilots from the 302nd and 525th Fighter Squadron spent the day with residents before a formal ceremony, which included the presentation of nine Alaska Veterans Service medals. Governor Bill Walker has tagged the Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home for closure. (Air Force photo)

The budget scare tactics have begun.

In Palmer, staff of the Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home were told they may have to find another place to work in August.

On Friday, word quickly trickled out to the residents, who are among the most vulnerable of populations in the state: The Senate was closing down the home.

The Walker Administration had even circulated a memo: Get ready for closure.

Except for one pesky detail: The Senate had not made those cuts.

The Senate’s 5.7 percent cut made to the nearly $1.1 billion Health and Social Services budget was largely unallocated, meaning that cuts can come from anywhere in the department.

The Senate had asked the department to trim for less than six cents on the dollar. The Walker Administration said those cuts, which had been merely parked by the Senate as a placeholder in the budget, would remain there.

[Read: Fish and Game embarks on chickadee housing study.]

At an impromptu meeting on Friday morning, staff members of the Palmer facility were informed that the only possible way for the Department of Health and Social Services to absorb the cut to its budget by closing the home down.

*Sen. Peter Micciche headed up the HSS budget subcommittee. Sen. Lyman Hoffman, left, is co-chair of Finance.*

Sen. Peter Micciche was not impressed with the scare tactic. “We specifically protected seniors in the HSS budget in the subcommittee process and demanded that no cuts go to senior services. The cuts had already been adequate in their category. When the budget left the subcommittee process my expectation was that seniors would continue to be protected,” said Micciche, who chairs the HSS budget subcommittee.

“The administration is specifically using scenarios to cause fear — in the desire to arrive at an income tax. The bottom line is that we’ll fight to ensure the Pioneers Homes will continue as they have historically,” Micciche said.

Normally, an administration doesn’t strike out with fear tactics at this point in the budget process.

But a note from Anthony Newman of the Department of Health and Social Services, reiterated the department’s stance that it would likely close the Palmer Veterans and Pioneers Home, which is predominantly caring for veterans:

“Following the Senate’s action on Monday to reduce funding for the Pioneer Homes by $6,542.6, the Department sent word to its administrators that the closure of the homes was only realistic way to meet this proposed budget target. The Palmer Home would be the most likely Home to be closed because the community has other resources that could be available to residents, and the Anchorage Home could be able to take those who had no other options. Be aware that closure of one Home will not be enough to meet the budget target, so the Department is analyzing the savings that would be achieved by closing the Juneau Pioneer Home as well.”

The note went on to say the closures would begin in August and a skeleton staff would then complete shut down of the Palmer facility by October.

Copied on that note were Commissioner Valerie Davidson, and numerous HSS division directors and senior staff, as well as members of the Governor’s Office legislative liaison team.

Predictably, word leaked around the state. In Ketchikan, the city council was told the Pioneer Home could also be in peril.

Alarm bells went off in the senior services economy. After an extensive remodel in 2004 to meet U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs requirements, the Palmer home was renamed the Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home and gets federal assistance. Seventy-five percent of the 79 beds in the home are designated for veterans, with just 25 percent available for non-veterans. About 100 people work at the home.

Members of the Valley delegation received an email from a Palmer resident who works at the Palmer Veterans and Pioneer Home, telling of the impromptu meeting and saying that staff was told the home would close unless there was an income tax.

An income tax has been proposed by House Democrats. The Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer is in Republican country.

During the budget process, it’s not unheard of for an administration to use a “Statue of Liberty” strategy, named after the method employed by the U.S. Park Service. Whenever it receives a cut it shuts down the nation’s most popular monuments.

*Sen. Mike Dunleavy offered to help the governor find cuts, and said he could start with lawyers, consultants, and gasline offices.*

Must Read Alaska spoke to a staff member close to the Senate Finance Committee: “We did have to make cuts in the places where there is the most UGF (undesignated general funds). But we put an unallocated cut on HSS. The department heads can move that money around but they’re spinning it this way because they want us to cave.”

Sen. Mike Dunleavy, a Mat-Su Republican, said he could help the governor find cuts, if he needed help.

“Amazing. The governor can open up gas pipeline offices in Tokyo and Houston, can hire an army of lawyers and pay consultants $800,000, but he throws veterans and old people to the curb? We’re not going to let that happen.” Dunleavy said.

The Valley delegation, with Rep. Cathy Tilton as strong and experienced lead on the HSS budget, is also looking at different places where the department could have made cuts. Tilton for years worked as a legislative aide to House Finance and the HSS budget was her prime responsibility.

Several of the House amendments to the HSS budget were voted down by the Democrat-led House majority, so Tilton has a starting point, although she is now in the minority caucus.

Rep. Cathy Tilton has been an advocate for seniors and says the governor isn’t being transparent.

“This hasn’t even gone through conference committee yet, so for the governor to use these scare tactics and get the residents of the Pioneers’ Homes and their families upset, is really unconscionable. And it’s not very transparent,” she said.

It’s springtime for Juneau: The end game is cruel

Suzanne Downing

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April 8, 2017

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OUR SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR THINKS ABOUT FISHING, BUDGETS, AND SINE DIE

By ART CHANCE

April is the cruelest month in Juneau.

The king salmon are starting to come in. But if you are a legislator or if you work for the Legislature, you either don’t have time to chase the wily king or are afraid that somebody will see you fishing and your picture will be on the front page of the Alaska Dispatch News with a blurb about how you should be working.

Unless you’re a Democrat; the Rogoff Rag wouldn’t do that to a Democrat.

April is when all the pieces that people have been moving all session are put into motion to pass bills, kill bills, and score political points.

April is when the fondest hope of some legislator or interest group fades and dies with “sine die” for a benediction.

I think it is extraordinarily unlikely that there will be a budget for the governor to sign when the speaker says sine die. I can think of several ways this can play out and somebody smarter or more devious can probably think of some I haven’t thought of. It will take me a couple or three of these pieces to game out the permutations, so I’ll start with the easy ones to foresee.

The House isn’t going to accept any budget that results in the elimination or reduction of one program that is important to Democrat constituencies or which results in the layoff of any unionized State employees, and even if they would, the union-owned governor wouldn’t sign it.

The Senate has a difficult choice; if they try to be adults and reach for a sustainable budget, the House and the Governor won’t accept it.

If any Republican in the Senate bolts the Caucus and votes with the Democrats to pass a House budget, s/he is signing his/her political death warrant. The likely result is that there will be no budget as the 90^th day passes.

The Legislature and the Governor will have to make a show of trying to resolve the impasse with a Special Session. Were I the Governor I’d make some statement about how the Legislators ought to go home and talk to their constituents and set the convening of the Special Session in May.

If you don’t have a budget, May is “crunch time.” You must have an Operating Budget by May 31. If you don’t, then in June almost all State employees must be given notice that they are subject to layoff for lack of funds at close of business on June 30.

It is likely that School Districts and REAAs will follow suit and issue layoff notices to education employees on June 1.

Some municipalities may also do so for employees in programs supported by State or federal funds.

At some point the ferry system and the airports will give notice that they may not be operating after June 30; there goes a big chunk of the tourist season.

If the State unions can get solidarity with their brothers and sisters in the Longshoremen’s Union, the cruise ship season is at risk and perhaps even the Alaska tanker trade.

A longshoremen’s refusal to work is probably illegal but that takes time to sort out and a lot of travelers will change their travel plans during that sorting out. Unlike the federal government which can keep vital people working in a period with no budget, the State has no such authority.

At 12:01 am, July 1, if there is no budget, the State government does not exist. I don’t think the Governor would let the prisons, the Pioneer homes, the State Troopers, and other vital services stop, but he could or the employees could entirely lawfully refuse to come to work if they can’t be guaranteed to be paid.

If I had a Republican governor and I was his director of labor relations, I’d accept the “queen’s gambit” and dare them to shut it down on July 1; I think I could win, but my definition of winning would be very different from the hermaphrodite* Administration’s definition.

My definition of winning would be making the unions and Democrats back off, accept taking a haircut, and come to terms on a budget in which they can control their losses.

Their definition of winning is going to the shutdown, blaming the Republicans, whipping up a media frenzy about killing Granny, and making the Republicans come to heel and give the unions/Democrats the budget they want.

In summary, Senate Republican-led majority can either accede to the governor and the union-owned House’s budget and spend the time between now and January 2018 hoping that a war in the Middle East will save Alaska again, or they can have an existential battle with the governor, the Democrats, and unions.

Nobody has ever accused me of being reticent to bring on a fight, but this fight is for the money, marbles, and chalk, and I’d give it a lot of thought and make sure I knew who my friends were before I got in that ring.

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 only writes for Must Read Alaska when he’s thoroughly bored. *Chance uses the phrase “hermaphrodite Administration” to describe a governor who is both a Republican and a Democrat.

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