Page 1628 – Must Read Alaska

Does Jahna Lindemuth have the votes for confirmation as AG?

-

April 6, 2017

*Fishing on the Klutina, (photo courtesy of Salmon Grove Campground.)*

Jahna Lindemuth has been Alaska’s acting attorney general since the sudden exit of Gov. Bill Walker’s first attorney general, Craig Richards, in 2016.

But her confirmation is less than certain.

In fact, this is a high-risk month for Lindemuth. She’s been walking through the Capitol legislative offices, talking with lawmakers who hold her future in their hands. She’s counting votes.

She doesn’t have them yet.

Lindemuth needs 31 votes for confirmation. She’ll get the House Democrat majority — 22, and the Senate Democrat minority — 4.

That means she needs to lock down five more green buttons when she faces the joint confirmation vote to be named the State’s top law officer and Gov. Walker’s attorney.

But before she faces that joint vote, Lindemuth has to head back to the Senate Judiciary Committee room, where her hearing will have been hung up for over month.

When she went before Senate Judiciary on March 9, lawmakers asked her about her closed-door settlement with Ahtna Corp. over road access to Klutina Lake. They sent her back to think about who she represents in this case. Senate President Pete Kelly of Fairbanks told her he was not comfortable with what he had heard from her so far.

Her next committee hearing will be Wednesday at 1:30 pm in Senate Judiciary. The public will be queued up to testify, and word on the street is they have a lot to say. Interest is higher than normal for an AG confirmation, although Walker’s last one, Craig Richards, also faced a grilling two years ago.

WHO IS LINDEMUTH’S TOP CLIENT?

The Alaska Outdoor Council and the Fairbanks Laundry House Gang have raised questions about whether Lindemuth really stands for the people of Alaska, or a private corporation who had given the governor a big campaign assist in 2014.

The Klutina Lake Road transects property owned by Ahtna Corporation, which donated $25,000 to Walker Mallott 1, and Your Future Alaska — groups that helped Gov. Walker get elected.

Now, Walker is directing his acting attorney general to give away a federally guaranteed right-of-way to Athna. The road was established in 1898. It has been perhaps the most important state road access right-of-way to defend for many years. It’s an area popular with Alaska outdoors enthusiasts — fishers, campers and boaters.

The case file on Klutina Road is hundreds of pages deep with documentation from the Department of Transportation and the Department of Law, which has fought for the access that is cryptically called RS-2477.

RS-2477 allows the public to stop, park, pick berries, gather firewood, camp, launch a boat, and swat mosquitoes.

Ahtna Corp. sued the State of Alaska about nine years ago and the case was to go to trial this month, when Lindemuth filed a pleading with the court to stay the case so she could negotiate a settlement.

What Ahtna wants is to control access for its shareholders and put limitations on the access rights of other Alaskans.

[Read: Governor rolls over on Klutina access case]

Lindemuth is negotiating down the access to something called a 17-b easement, which prohibits many of those public recreational activities and reduces the width of the right-of-way substantially.

However, no one outside the lawyers for the Department of Law knows what the terms of the settlement are, because it’s being done in secret.

And that’s one of the sticking points for outdoor advocates: Public access is being settled behind closed doors.

When asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee why she was negotiating away the public’s rights, Lindemuth said she had to decide whether or not to pursue the case and it was her judgment — and her right — as attorney general to settle. She was looking for a “win-win.” Sen. Pete Kelly told her he wanted a “win,” not a “win-win.”

[Read: Senators to AG Lindemuth: Fight to win]

Late last month, Gov. Walker bent to public pressure and issued a statement saying that the settlement terms would include a full 100-foot right-of-way “and opportunities for fishing, camping and boating.”

The Alaska Outdoor Council says that these are uses already protected by RS-2477, and it is leery of any agreement to limit those rights.

Walker also said that the settlement would provide “multiple areas along Klutina Lake Road…where the public can fish and launch boats into the river.”

The Alaska Outdoor Council argues that those rights are covered already under RS-2477.

Walker promised: “Areas will be provided for camping and overnight parking and any fee Ahtna charges must be reasonable and similar to fees charged in State campgrounds.”

But a 2002 opinion by the Attorney General’s office stated: “Ahtna has no legal authority to regulate the highway by requiring the purchase of permits or the payment of tolls or by prohibiting historic uses of the road by corporate fiat.”

[Read: Governor strikes defensive posture on Klutina access case]

TOGIAK CASE MAY RAISE ITS HEAD

Since Lindemuth’s somewhat contentious hearing on March 9, another case has arisen that may capture the interest of Senate Judiciary:

In the village of Togiak this week, a non-Native resident was bound with duct tape and put on a plane, banished from the community. There was no due process for the man, who operates an inn and was accused by tribal members of bringing alcohol into the village.

Tribal justice is something the Walker Administration has supported, including allowing communities to banish tribal members when they choose.

But for a village to banish a nonmember of a tribe? That raises constitutional questions, which committee members will want addressed by the attorney general. The Togiak man in question has hired an attorney who told the Alaska Dispatch News that the man’s constitutional rights had been violated.

Public testimony will be heard on Wednesday, April 12 at 1:30 at the Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing for acting AG Lindemuth. Alaskans may testify from their nearby Legislative Information Offices or call in their testimony (be prepared to wait) at 844-586-9086.

Commentary: Spending cap is key to solving budget crisis

Suzanne Downing

-

April 6, 2017

0

Commentary: Spending cap is key to solving budget crisis

By JEREMY PRICE

Once again, irresponsible spending by state lawmakers has left us with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. This latest crisis underscores the need to tighten the state’s “spending cap” on annual expenditures, and a bill recently passed in the Alaska Senate is a good start.

Senate Bill 26 imposes a statutory spending cap of $4.1 billion in general fund appropriations each year, which would grow with inflation. A statutory cap — which can ultimately be set aside during the budget process — would be less effective than a constitutional limit, but it is a start. Whatever form it takes, a revised spending cap is desperately needed to put our fiscal house in order over the coming years.

Alaskans have been supportive of the idea for more than three decades. When the state’s current constitutional spending cap was put before voters in 1982, 61 percent voted in support. When given the option to overturn the limitation four years later, the margin in favor of the spending cap was even greater: 71 percent to 29 percent. More recently, a 2015 poll by the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce found a majority of the state remains in favor of spending caps.

Regrettably, the constitutional spending limit that voters approved in the 80s has proven to be woefully insufficient to address the budgetary challenges of 2017. Simply put, it is set too high to be useful. Under the current provision, which excludes certain types of government funds, the limit for this year’s budget is $10.1 billion — more than double the budget of $4.7 billion.

In the last decade, state appropriations have only come close to the current cap twice — once in 2009 and again in 2013. That in itself is alarming, given how high the spending limits are set. The cap will need to be drastically reduced if it is to serve as an effective check on government spending.

With a tighter spending cap in place, we would not find ourselves scrambling to cover a $3 billion budget shortfall. Historically, the state budget explodes when oil fetches a high price, leaving us vulnerable to massive cuts when prices fall. For instance, state spending in the years between 2004 and 2013 more than doubled, from about $3 billion to $8.7 billion. Since then, falling oil prices have forced the state to gradually cut back. An effective spending limit would compel lawmakers to preserve a leaner government that is more sustainable over the long term.

As we look for ways to cover this year’s deficit, our focus should be on cutting wasteful and unnecessary expenditures. Legislators have done an admirable job of reducing spending over the last few years, but plenty of bloat remains to be cut. The facts speak for themselves. Alaska has one of the biggest public sectors in the country, second only to Wyoming. 24.2 percent of Alaska workers are employed by the public sector (federal, state and local), compared to a national rate of 15.5 percent. In 2015, the state government spent more than $18,000 per resident, far more than any other state in the country and more than triple the national average, which is below $6,000.

In addition to instituting a new spending cap, Senate Bill 26 would use about $2 billion in investment earnings from the Permanent Fund to cover the budget shortfall. It’s regrettable that using those funds has become necessary, but doing so is preferable to raising taxes, as some lawmakers have proposed. New taxes would burden hardworking families and make the state less attractive to new businesses and workers, leading to a decline in economic growth.

Rather than squeeze more revenue from taxpayers, state lawmakers should prove they are responsible stewards of public funds by enacting an effective state spending cap. If successful, they could ensure fiscally-responsible budgets for decades to come. That’s a win for all Alaskans.

Jeremy Price is the Alaska State Director of Americans for Prosperity. Raised in Salcha, he now lives in Anchorage.

Breaking news: Homer recall election set for June 13

Suzanne Downing

-

April 6, 2017

0

A special election to recall three Homer City Council members is now set for June 13.

The three had pushed to make Homer a sanctuary city, a place where illegal immigrants could find shelter from federal authorities.

Their actions this winter were documented in a series of emails that showed their intent to participate in a “resist Trump” style movement that would include creating sanctuary status for Homer via a resolution they were drafting with journalist-cum-citizen-activist Hal Spence.

Later, they modified their activities to create an “inclusivity” resolution, but by then their intentions were already public, as were the tracks they laid while they tried to re-brand their efforts.

A group of outraged Homer residents last month decided the three needed to face a recall election, and within two weeks had gathered the signatures needed. They delivered the signatures to the city clerk on Friday.

[Read: Homer petitioners reach recall milestone.]

“After reviewing the petitions, and consulting with the City Attorney, I have determined that sufficient signatures have been submitted for each of the petitions,” wrote Homer City Clerk Jo Johnson in a memo today. “I have also found that some of the allegations in the statements for recall were sufficient. As a result, I certified the petitions on April 5, 2017.”

*Larri Fancher, Larry Zuccaro, and Mike Fell delivered the petitions to City Clerk Jo Johnson on Friday.*

Petition sponsors, Mike Fell, Larry Zuccaro, and Larri Fancher submitted 15 petition booklets for each of the council members they seek to remove. Johnson certified that there were sufficient names in each of the petitions to proceed to the next step of deciding if the allegations had merit. There were 437 signatures to recall Aderhold, 436 for Lewis, and 436 for Reynolds.

Johnson found that 24 signatures for Alderhold were of people not on current voter rolls, or the signatures were illegible, or the actual signature was left off, or the person signed more than once. The petition for Lewis had 23 names that were not eligible, and 27 on the Reynolds petition were tossed.

But in the end, the recall group only needed 373 signatures each and they had several to spare in reaching their goal.

“Given the sufficiency of the signatures, I next examined the sufficiency of the statement for recall, with substantial assistance from the City Attorney in interpreting the relevant statutes and common law principles. In the State of Alaska, there are three grounds for recall, 1) misconduct in office; 2) incompetence; and 3) failure to perform prescribed duties,” Johnson wrote.

She said the grounds for recall are liberally constructed to favor access to the recall process, and she concluded that the group had sufficient grounds to ask for the vote.

She also noted that “the statutes offer the targeted official an opportunity to make a rebuttal, which will be placed on the ballot alongside the petitioners’ statement of charges. This rebuttal statement is the proper forum in which accused officials may defend against the charges. Where the petition merely characterizes the law in a way different than the official (or his or her attorney) would prefer, he or she has an opportunity to put his or her rebuttal before the voters, alongside the charges contained in the petition. It is not the place of the municipal clerk…to decide legal questions of this kind.”

[Read: Smoking gun: City council members intended to create sanctuary city]

The Homer City Council will be advised of her decision at its Monday meeting. Johnson said early voting will start two weeks prior to the election, which comes in the middle of a busy fishing and tourism season for the community on Kachemak Bay.

Dan Fauske: The ‘passing of Superman’

Suzanne Downing

-

April 5, 2017

0

Dan Fauske, who led the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation until his retirement in 2015, died this morning in Anchorage after a battle with cancer.

Former House Speaker Mike Chenault rose on the House Floor today to announce his passing. In a voice that was breaking, he announced Fauske’s passing:

“Mr. Speaker there are not many places across the state where Mr. Fauske is not thought of in a higher light. He was a great statesman and a great family man…my prayers and condolences to Elaine and the entire Fauske family.”

“Dan Fauske leaped tall buildings in a single bound. Like Superman, there was not a challenge he couldn’t take on. He grew the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation into what it is today after it was on the brink of closure,” Chenault said in a statement issued this afternoon. “He was a great Alaskan but more importantly a good man and friend.”

House Bill 143, naming the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation Building in Anchorage after Fauske, passed the Legislature last week. Governor Bill Walker will sign the bill into law on April 8 at 11 am in AHFC’s boardroom, 4300 Boniface Parkway.

Senator Pete Kelly issued this statement “Dan Fauske was one of the most competent men I ever met. His work with the Legislature on behalf of the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation brought immeasurable value to Alaskans.

“We loved his sense of humor, his reliance on relationships, and his ability to tell stories.”

Must Read Alaska editor Suzanne Downing remembered Dan Fauske as knowledgeable, helpful, and good natured. “Over the years I could always count on him to give the facts to me straight. He was a subject expert on so many things related to Alaska, and he knew how to keep things in perspective. He never overreached on a topic, but kept a steady, grown-up view of every situation. I will miss his counsel.”

Former Gov. Sean Parnell issued this statement this afternoon: “Sandy and I were deeply saddened to learn of Dan Fauske’s passing. We knew Dan to be a thoughtful, smart public servant as he led both AHFC and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. We will miss his smile and wit–that spark of humanity that made Dan very special. Our thoughts and prayers are with Elaine and the Fauske family and the many friends who, like us, count Dan a special friend.”

Fauske served as the Chief Executive Officer of Alaska Housing Finance Corporation from 1995 to August 2013, and before that was chief financial officer, chief administrative officer and budget director of the North Slope Borough, in Barrow. He was a director at National Community Renaissance of California and a director of National Housing Development Corporation.

Fauske earned his masters degree in business administration from Gonzaga University. Fauske’s survivors include his wife Elaine, and adult children, D.J., Scott, Brad, Kathy and Marcie.

D.J. Fauske offered sentiments on behalf of the Fauske family through the Office of the Governor: “Dan lost the battle but not the war. We are grateful for the many friends and professional colleagues who have prayed for, and connected with my dad and our entire family since learning of his diagnosis.”

“I have known Dan for a long time. I had the privilege to be a part of his work for eight years as an AHFC employee and three more years as a member of the board. He built AHFC with heart, intellect, and a can-do attitude,” said AHFC President Bryan Butcher. “Dan was a force of nature, a mentor to many of us, and a dear friend. He will be immeasurably missed.”

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan spoke about Fauske on the floor of the Senate this evening:

Mr. President, for months I’ve been coming down to the floor each week to recognize someone in my state who has made a difference—someone who has devoted time and energy to making my state a better place to live for others.

I call these individuals our Alaskan of the Week.

As I’ve said repeatedly, my state is the most beautiful state in the country—I’d argue in the world. I urge everybody here in this room, and watching on television, to come and see it for yourself. It’ll be a trip of a lifetime. Guaranteed.

But it’s the people that truly make my state unique. People who are helping each other. Strong willed, warm hearted, tenacious people who have worked tirelessly for all of us who live there.

Mr. President, this week I’d like to honor Dan Fauske, one of the strongest willed, warmest hearted people I have ever known. All he’s done for us has made Alaska a better place for all of us.

Dan came to Alaska in 1974 after serving in the Army, like so many Alaskans. And like so many Alaskans, he arrived with the glint of steel in his eye and a mission to help build our state. Alaska is full of natural wonders, but our man-made wonders are also marvels. And Dan wanted to be part of building more of those marvels.

He first arrived in the North Slope Borough to help the community build up their infrastructure and strengthen the villages in the area.

It was a time of enormous change for all of Alaska, and particularly the North Slope. Oil from the North Slope’s Prudhoe Bay, the largest oil field in North America, had recently begun to flow. The largest lands claim Act in history, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, had recently passed, and the governments of villages in rural Alaska were being formed and reformed.

After Dan went back to school to receive a master’s degree in business administration from Gonzaga, he made his way back to Alaska to serve as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer for Alaska’s North Slope Borough, where he launched an ambitious and ultimately successful capital plan to provide running water and sewer services to the villages throughout the Borough.

According to Bill Tracey, Sr. from Point Lay, who was a co-worker at the time, “Dan’s excellent work ethic and skills earned him the respect of the North Slope leaders… His accomplishments were remarkable.”

With his beautiful and spirited wife Elaine always by his side, Dan then moved his family to Anchorage to head up the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation. For 18 years, Dan managed AHFC’s nearly $5 billion in assets. It’s not an overstatement to say that he revolutionized that agency, doing remarkable things—including, and most importantly, helping thousands and thousands of Alaskans pursue their dream of buying an affordable home.

The Alaska Legislature just passed a bill to name the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation the Daniel R. Fauske Building. There will be a dedication ceremony in Anchorage this Saturday.

As his bio indicates, there is no doubt that for decades, Dan served Alaska with his hands, his heart, and his head.

But a bio, on paper, can only tell you so much about a person.

To really appreciate him, you have to have been with him and watched the energy and can-do spirit radiate off of Dan. You had to have watched him talk to people: with respect, with humor, understanding and keen intelligence.

He had a big laugh and told great stories. He also had that rare ability to genuinely connect with everybody he met, and was able to speak the language of a businessman, a builder, veteran, and a public servant. He spoke the language of a father, a husband, a friend, and a true Alaskan.

In so doing, he gained the respect of politicians, state workers, military members—people from all across Alaska. If you wanted something done and done right, you asked Dan Fauske to help do it. People trusted Dan Fauske. I trusted Dan Fauske.

Most importantly, Dan was a great father to three great boys: DJ, Scott, and Brad, and two daughters, Marcy and Kathy. And he was a great husband to his incredible, vivacious and very strong wife Elaine.

Mr. President, Dan passed away this afternoon, with his family and friends by his side. Our prayers, and the prayers of so many Alaskans, go out to all of them during this difficult time. For anyone watching, I humbly ask that they say a prayer too.

For all he’s done for all of us—and all his memory will continue to do for us–Dan Fauske is our Alaskan of the Week. He was also my very good friend. And my wife Julie and I will miss him greatly.

Earlier this session, legislators unanimously passed HB 143, naming the AHFC Anchorage headquarters the Daniel R. Fauske Building. Arrangements for a summer celebration of life are pending, and details will be made available by the family at a later date.

Anchorage conservatives didn’t show up — where have they gone?

Suzanne Downing

-

April 5, 2017

7

An animated talk show radio host, Eddie Burke, right, talks about the Anchorage political scene with former Mayor Dan Sullivan, at Bootlegger’s Saloon, where conservative voters gathered to wait for the results of the Anchorage municipal election on Tuesday night.

Liberal Democrats took over the Anchorage Assembly last night, giving Mayor Ethan Berkowitz a veto proof majority, 9-2. They ran the tables on conservatives.

Voters also chose to tax homes and property for things they don’t necessarily need — such as parks and recreation expansion and public building renovations. Proposition 2 — the ambulance bond — failed largely because of a rally of credible conservative arguments, but the rest of the borrowing expenditures passed. No groups formed to oppose them.

Evidently, voters didn’t get the memo that taxation is on the upswing from every direction in the state, that their cost of living in Anchorage is going to go up, their Permanent Fund dividends are going to be reduced, and Alaska is moving into a construction season where backhoes will remain idle.

What does this election result say about Anchorage? Does the second-lowest turnout in its municipal election history — 19.66 percent — have anything to do with the outcome? Are conservatives too busy packing to vote?

Or have the petroleum engineers and their coworkers already left Alaska’s largest city for jobs Down South, and voters who remain are trending toward Big Government?

Probably all of the above.

SOUTH ANCHORAGE WENT SIDEWAYS

To be sure, the south Anchorage Assembly seat that Republican Al Fogle might have won was lost to Suzanne LaFrance, a hard-left Democrat who in 2014 signed the petition to repeal SB 21, oil tax reform, and also supported marijuana legalization and increased minimum wage. The outcome in this week’s election is an oddity, but there are explanations.

Voters in that district reported receiving robocalls prior to election day warning them that Fogle, who is reportedly gay, would favor transgender bathrooms, and LaFrance did her own followup robocall calling herself the social conservative.

That was all part of the Democratic sneak attack, and it worked. Social conservatives voted for the hard left Democrat or stayed home. It was ironic for Democrats to outfox conservative south Anchorage by opposing a supposedly gay Republican. And using homophobic fear mongering with a heavy dose of divisive misinformation to do so.

The winner, LaFrance, likely does not represent that district as well as Fogle might have, but we’ll park that analysis for now.

The religious right at one time was a dominant force in Anchorage. Alaska Family Council and the Anchorage Baptist Temple together could swing a race.

But take a look at the LGBTQ ordinance that passed Anchorage in 2015. The ordinance added protections to Anchorage equal rights laws for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people in housing and employment and public accommodations, which would include bathrooms.

In the two years since that ordinance passed, no significant effort has been made to repeal it. A reasonable person might come to the conclusion that social conservatives are waning in Anchorage. And a reasonable person might be right about that.

ALASKA’S FAT-TIRE CITY

There appear to be a lot more fat-tire bikes in Anchorage than Cadillac Escalades these days. And these bike riders are voting.

The 2016 General Election says it all. Take out Eagle River (House District 13, 14), and the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was white-knuckle close.

Trump won Anchorage by just 25 votes — about the size of one Sunday school class. On a good Sunday.

That trend is reflected in Anchorage’s legislative team as well: Anchorage is represented by three Democrat senators (out of eight in Anchorage), eight Democrat House members, (nine if Gabrielle LeDoux is counted), five Republican House members.

That’s Anchorage today: Resource jobs have left, and health care and social service workers have moved in. Resource workers tend to vote Republican, while nurses, aides and caseworkers tend to vote Democrat.

Statewide, Trump slaughtered Clinton in Alaska — Clinton took 36.6 percent of the vote, to Trump’s 51.3 percent.

But as for the state’s most metropolitan area, if you take Eagle River Districts 13 and 14 out, Anchorage was dead even.

ANCHORAGE LOOKING MORE LIKE URBAN AMERICA

The pattern across the nation is that urban areas trend Democrat, and Anchorage is following the pattern. A diverse community that was once home to oil and construction jobs has changed over the past five years. After Gov. Bill Walker signed Medicaid expansion into law, a couple of thousand health care jobs were created, and mostly in Southcentral, mostly in Anchorage.

With the anti-oil policies trending in the Governor’s Office, and a bitter “indivisible” Bernie Sanders faction eager to resist anything resembling a Trump policy, Anchorage may be drifting even further left.

That leftward trend in Anchorage will pose a challenge to conservatives who hope to take back the mayor’s office in 2018.

Reducing exposure, GCI looks to its own fiscal certainty by merging

Politics

Suzanne Downing

-

April 5, 2017

0

*GCI rural communication tower at sunset, (photo from GCI web site.)*

Alaska-born GCI is merging with a Colorado-based company in a $1.12 billion deal.

The merger between Liberty Ventures Group and Alaska’s largest telecommunication company was announced this morning. GCI’s NASDAQ price soared over 62 percent before the markets closed, ending the day at $33.39.

The markets evidently liked the transaction. So will GCI shareholders, who will receive $32.50 for each share, a 58 percent premium.

“This transaction is a win for our shareholders, customers, and employees,” said Ron Duncan, GCI co-founder, president, and chief executive officer.

The merged entity will be called GCI Liberty and is expected to remain listed as a publicly traded NASDAQ stock.

GCI customers probably won’t notice the change; Duncan will keep running the company, which has about 2,300 employees, making it among the top 10 private sector employers in the state.

ECONOMICS 101, POLITICS 400

Duncan was circumspect in his official statement about the merger.

“We will continue to run the company with our focus on providing the best value for Alaska customers, offering opportunities for our employees and investing wisely in the Alaska market,” he said, in a well-scrubbed corporate statement. “As part of a larger company, GCI will be even better positioned to compete, innovate, and serve Alaskans and our customers in the lower 48 states.”

Duncan said not a word about the economic conditions and political realities in Alaska.

Yet those who know the entrepreneur understand that the deal is also a punctuation on a message Duncan has been driving home about Alaska’s economic stability for three years.

Duncan, who has not been shy about supporting political candidates throughout his career, went big over the past two years trying to move the needle on a solution for the State’s deficit spending juggernaut, because he saw storm clouds ahead for the general economy if leaders didn’t act decisively.

The telecommunications president was invited to help Gov. Bill Walker figure out a solution to the problem. He and a handful of other top business leaders pored over financial plans and offered their own studied advice.

Then, Duncan ended up forming a political group, Alaska’s Future, to encourage lawmakers to do the tough work needed to “lengthen the runway” on Alaska’s fiscal crisis. They spent millions trying to educate the public about the pending economic trainwreck.

That group was especially interested in a proposed plan to restructure the Alaska Permanent Fund’s Earnings Reserve Account, to help pay for state services. It was certainly a big part of the solution, he said. And while the State has over $55 billion in the Permanent Fund, many economists say the earnings should be used more effectively right now to steady the ship.

Alaska’s Future co-chairs were former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles, AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami, and Alaska Native corporation CEOs, Helvi Sandvik of NANA Regional Corp. and Sophie Minich of Cook Inlet Region Inc.

NEW YEAR, SAME PROBLEM, SHORTER RUNWAY

In 2017, the Alaska House of Representatives is still having trouble coming to consensus over a path forward. Per capita State spending remains higher than any other state in the union at about $16,000 per resident. The average in other states is $5,300 per person.

And the House leadership, now dominated by Democrats, has just offered a budget even larger than the one proposed by Gov. Bill Walker.

The Senate gets it. In their presentation to a combined audience of the RDC [Resource Development Council] and State Chamber last week, their plan is aggressive on cuts. If they do just what they have on the table — $200 million, plus Senate Bill 26, that’s a six- or seven-year lease on life. – Ron Duncan

“You don’t have to fill the whole hole. If the hole is $400 million, that’s eight years before we run out of reserves, and they will figure it out in those years.”

Senate Bill 26 uses Permanent Fund earnings, not principle, to provide a big patch.

[Read: Senate Bill 26 – to stabilize economy – heads to Senate floor]

But waiting on the Alaska House to come to terms with a plan added a bit too much uncertainty in an already risk-heavy economic environment.

GCI took its own steps toward fiscal certainty with today’s announcement.

It’s all about spreading out the risk, Duncan told Must Read Alaska this afternoon. “Instead of 100 percent risk exposure in Alaska, we now have 25 percent.”

WARNING WAS NOT A THREAT

Last year, Duncan advised lawmakers that private sector companies would be pulling back their investments if Alaska didn’t get its fiscal house in order.

Some hard-left operatives, such as Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, called it a threat. In his January, 2016 newsletter, Gara glibly wrote, “Of course, Mr. Duncan can choose to do what he wants. It’s a free country. I just wish he would consider how this threatens to undermine a collaborative political process, which requires something better than suggestions of campaign threats.”

But Duncan wasn’t kidding when he warned legislators about the $3 billion shortfall. Job creators have their own way of seeing things, and with his company posting a loss last year, and with oil-related workers leaving the state by the thousands, Duncan pulled back his capital investment by 25 percent for 2017.

INVESTMENT OVER THE DECADES: GINORMOUS

Duncan is in his 40th year in Alaska. He came north in 1977 with some Alaska friends he met at Harvard, where he had attended graduate school after obtaining an economics degree from Johns Hopkins University.

He started a cable television company in Fairbanks and two years later moved to Anchorage, where he and his friend Bob Walp started GCI.

The two battled mightily through regulatory minefields to get a toehold in the long-distance business, completing their company’s first long-distance call on Thanksgiving Day, 1982. Walp, who had been the CEO, retired from GCI in 1989, and passed away earlier this year.

In 2011, the company started the TERRA project to expand its communications network to rural and remote areas of Alaska. The project now provides more than 80 villages with access to terrestrial broadband.

In 2016, GCI added Buckland, Kiana, Noorvik, Selawik, Koyuk, Elm, Golovin, White Mountain, Stebbins and St. Michael to the network, which involves microwave radio towers that brought 3G wireless data service to several dozen tiny and remote communities.

GCI is Alaska’s largest communications provider, with more than 100,000 Internet and video subscribers each, and 200,000 wireless customers. GCI’s revenue was $934 million in 2016, a drop from $979 million the previous year.

Election: Anchorage plans to borrow money to make payroll

Suzanne Downing

-

April 4, 2017

0

*Anchorage ambulance races through Spenard. (YouTube screen shot. Alex Alverson video)*

IF YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT INCREASING THE TAX CAP, DON’T VOTE

If you’re in Anchorage, by all means don’t bother to vote today. Your taxes will likely go up by the ballot marks of others.

An example of what might pass if you skip out on your civic duty is a $23 million property tax increase disguised as a $650,000 purchase of two ambulances.

Proposition 2, the ambulance bond, is possibly the sneakiest bond proposition in Anchorage history.

Prop 2 starts out innocently enough, but is asking voters to pay for a lot of things they can’t really see in the ballot language or anywhere else on the Anchorage municipality’s new web site.

Voters believe they are funding two ambulances for $650,000. There are some vaguely referenced transit vehicles (these may be buses, but we aren’t told) for a total cost of $1.65 in the principal amount of general obligation bonds.

But the real cost is $24 million.

Without knowing it, voters choosing yes on Prop. 2 will be increasing the tax cap, because by approving the capital expenditures, they’ll also be approving the operating expenses with them: 14 firefighter positions for the next 10 years.

That’s 14 union firefighter positions.

“This is a sneaky deal — adding staff to a bond,” said Assembly member Amy Demboski. “I voted no on this in the Assembly for even putting it on the ballot because it’s my pet peeve: You don’t add staff to a bond.”

Demboski isn’t the only one. While she is particularly concerned for those living outside the center of Anchorage who will get no benefit from the bond, others have voiced concerns as well.

Former Mayors Rick Mystrom, George Wuerch, Tom Fink and Dan Sullivan all oppose Proposition 2.

In a radio ad airing in recent days, Mystrom says:

“This bond issue avoids the tax cap by lumping massive labor costs into a small bond proposal. The Prop 2 proposal looks pretty innocent: $650,00 for two ambulances. But 10 years later, the taxpayers will have paid almost $24 million in property taxes for this deceptively small bond proposal,” Mystrom said. “This tactic bypasses the tax cap and squeezes millions of new taxes from homeowners.”

WHO’S VOTING?

The line to vote at the Loussac Library in Anchorage at 9 am today was noteworthy in one particular way: There was no line. In a span of 10 minutes, only one person cast a ballot. The 10 election workers were falling all over themselves to help the one voter at the door.

But Anchorage residents can be certain that both municipal and school employees will be out in force at the polls, voting to raise taxes on residents and bust through the tax cap.

Polls are open until 8 pm. Your dirty hair can wait.

Monday newsletter outtakes: Opioid tax, pot taxes, Anchorage Muni election picks

Suzanne Downing

-

April 3, 2017

0

Must Read Alaska is taking a break this morning to send out thank you notes to all of our first-quarter supporters. But don’t forget, we have a Monday morning e-newsletter, and you should subscribe!

Here’s an outtake of what’s in today’s Must Read Alaska Monday newsletter. Go ahead — go to the right side of this page and sign up for the best way to kickstart your week. It’s free. (Meanwhile…feel free to support this conservative spot for news with a contribution, because we’d like to thank you, too.)

GOOD MORNING from somewhere in Alaska … It’s Monday, April 3, 2017…Two weeks left in the 90-day legislative session, which ends on Easter…Will it be resurrected into special session? (When was the last time the Alaska Legislature didn’t have a special session?) … Most MRAK readers are conservative Alaskans, but all are welcome…Share this newsletter with your open-minded friends…But first…

THIS WEEK IN SUPREMES: This week, Neil Gorsuch will likely be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has had a vacancy for 13 months, since Antonin Scalia died. We predict drama prior to confirmation. Democrats will filibuster. Republicans will tire of it, change the rules, and vote. And we will have to fix our spell checks so that Gorsuch doesn’t auto-correct to “Grouch.” #annoying.

THIS WEEK IN JUNEAU:
House Finance takes up Governor Bill Walker’s income tax bill, HB 115, today (Monday) at 1 pm.
Senate Resources takes up the Jonesville Public Use Area bill, SB 65, today at 3:30 pm
House Finance takes up Governor Bill Walker’s motor fuel tax, HB 60, Wednesday, 1:30 pm

THIS WEEK IN OIL COMPANIES: They’re considering it a win if they break even, according to this analysis in the Wall Street Journal.

Cliff notes: Despite billions of dollars in spending cuts and a modest oil-price rebound, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron and BP didn’t make enough money in 2016 to cover their costs, according to the Journal.

ANCHORAGE MUNI ELECTION TUESDAY: It’s math. If everyone of the thousands of Anchorage residents who read this newsletter take the time to vote on Tuesday, we’ll have a moderate-conservative Assembly in Alaska’s biggest little town.

MUST READ ALASKA’S ANCHORAGE MUNI BALLOT:

ASSEMBLY

District 1 – Seat B – Downtown
COX, Chris

District 2 – Seat C – Eagle River / Chugiak
BRASSELL, John (up and comer) or
DYSON, Fred (older warrior)

District 3 – Seat E – West Anchorage
NEES, David

District 4 – Seat G – Midtown Anchorage
SANDERS, Marcus or
SMITH, Don

District 5 – Seat I – East Anchorage
JONES, Don

District 6 – Seat K – South Anchorage
FOGLE, Albert

SCHOOL BOARD

Voted on areawide by all in the Municipality of Anchorage:

School Board Seat C
DONLEY, Dave

School Board Seat D
SCHUSTER, Kay

PROPOSITIONS

YES – PROPOSITION 1 – SCHOOL BONDS, It’s not perfect, but the projects are mostly needed repairs that won’t get any less expensive with further delay.
NO – PROPOSITION 2 – AMBULANCES AND LABOR, Borrowing to pay for 14 new firefighter positions? Just no.
NO – PROPOSITION 3 – PARKS AND REC, Nice projects have to wait in this economy.
YES – PROPOSITION 4 – STORM DRAINAGE, Infrastructure.
NO – PROPOSITION 5 – FIRE TRUCKS AND STATIONS, It can wait.
NO – PROPOSITION 6 – POLICE FACILITY UPGRADES, See above.
NO – PROPOSITION 7 – PARKS AND REC TAX AREA EXPANSION, The Muni looking for more folks to tax.
NO – PROPOSITION 8 – REPEALING TAXI CAB EXPANSION, See below:

THE MESSIEST PROPOSITION AWARD: Prop. 8 wins the prize for the most confusing proposition to ever hit a ballot in Anchorage. Taxi permit holders in Anchorage don’t want more cabs on the street. That’s why they want you to vote yes on Proposition 8.

A yes vote repeals the ordinance that is phasing in more cabs. With the taxi cab union out in force with flyers, chances are the public will vote yes.

A no vote continues opening up the taxi permits. Cabs would arrive on time because more would be available. More available cabs result in safer roads and happier customers.

(It almost doesn’t matter what the taxi permit holders want, because the world has moved on. Uber, Lyft and Zipcar are modeling the next generation of personal transportation in 49 other states. A bipartisan group of legislators in Juneau may make us the 50th.)

FACE-PALM DEPT: Can you believe it? Fully 20 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or the rest of the LGBTQ definitions, according to a Harris Poll done for the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD. It’s either the hippest new thing for millennials to say out loud, or it’s in the water. Read the survey here.

In other news, Sen. Berta Gardner, D-Anchorage, decided it was time for more LGBTQ legislation, because it’s always time to have more hearings in Juneau.

Berta gives you Senate Bill 72, prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression — and beefing up the workload of the State Commission for Human Rights. Bring on the lawsuits.

MORE FACE-PALM: Rep. Jonathan Kriess-Tompkins has legislation to tax opioids. Which means he wants people who are taking medicine for chronic pain to pay more for that medicine. House Bill 196 creates a 1-cent tax on imports or manufacture of each milligram of morphine equivalent. Who actually pays for an opioid tax?

WE’RE HAPPY, RIGHT? Alaska is the second-happiest state in the U.S., right after Hawaii. That’s because we live in this big-and-awesome state most of the time, and vacation in hot-and-heavenly Hawaii? That’s our theory and we’re really happy about it. Read the Gallup poll here.

WHAT WE’RE READING:

POETS VS. TYRANTS: Yevtushenko, poet who denounced Stalin, has died. Our poet obituary of the week.

WHERE DID GONZAGA COME FROM: Some beautiful irony is our sports read of the week.

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, FASCINATED BY WHITTIER: But who isn’t? The Lives in Begich Tower is our Alaska voyeurism read of the week.

BLACK PIGMENT MATTERS: Vantablack is the world’s darkest black pigment, so dark that it flattens reality and swallows lasers. One British artist has a lock on the Vantablack market, and that has ticked off the other artists who now ban him from using the world’s pinkest pink. That’s our arts and science read of the week.

LOOKING FOR CHANGE IN THE SOFA: On tonight’s Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly agenda is the question of whether to eliminate the senior sales tax exemption for the purchase of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana.

The borough staff believes it can pull in about $25,000 in sales taxes with the measure. The meeting begins at 5:30 pm in Borough Assembly Chambers, White Cliff Building.

WRANGELL POT TAX: The Wrangell Borough Assembly is getting ready to curb the business hours of marijuana stores, so no pot can change hands between 6 pm and 8 am. Also, they’ll be instituting a $10 tax on every ounce of cultivated pot that is sold. That would be on top of the $50 per ounce the state already charges in taxes. The money raised would go to the city’s general fund.

Homer petitioners reach recall milestone

Suzanne Downing

-

April 2, 2017

9

*Larri Fancher, Larry Zuccaro, and Mike Fell of Homer, Alaska file a recall petition with City Clerk Jo Johnson on Friday.*

A group of Homer residents has filed a petition with the city clerk containing more than 460 names of residents who signed a request to recall three Homer City Council members.

The filing is one more step in what may be one of the largest local recall efforts in Alaska state history, asking voters to remove three of six council members.

Larri Fancher, Larry Zuccaro, and Mike Fell handed the petitions to Clerk Jo Johnson at 3 pm on Friday. They then took down their temporary recall headquarters on Ocean Drive and closed up their name-gathering operation. Within two weeks, they had acquired more than enough names to force a recall. They were satisfied with their work.

Clerk Johnson must verify the signatures and decide whether the petitioners have a legitimate case against council members Donna Aderhold, David Lewis and Catriona Reynolds, who angered many in this fishing-and-art community for attempting to enshrine Homer as a “sanctuary city,” where illegal immigrants could find safe haven from federal immigration authorities.

“We think Jo will be able to verify the 373 voter names needed within a couple of days,” said Zuccaro on Sunday. He said the group could have kept gathering signatures, but felt that having more than 25 percent above what was needed would be sufficient and it was time to move on to organize for a vote.

The group says in its petition that “Aderhold, Lewis and Reynolds are each proven unfit for office, as evident by their individual efforts in preparation of Resolution 16-121 and 17-109, the text of which stands in clear and obvious violation of Homer City Code Title 1.”

Those efforts include trying to pass Resolution 16-121, opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the effort to “resist” President Donald Trump and create a sanctuary city through Resolution 17-019.

The final version of the sanctuary resolution was unconvincing to many members of the public.

Several clauses, such as, “the city of Homer will not cooperate with federal agencies in detaining undocumented immigrants unless such actions are supported by court-issued federal warrants” were changed in the final version. But the intent was clear, they said, in the final version: “the city of Homer will cooperate with federal agencies in detaining undocumented immigrants [only] when court-issued federal warrants are delivered.”

With all the anti-Trump language in the original version of the resolution, it could be argued the three were engaged in partisan politics. That may violate the city’s Title 1 code prohibiting certain partisan political activity by city officials while on duty. There is also the matter of whether the three are simply unfit for office.

While the sanctuary city resolution eventually was watered down into an “inclusivity” resolution, it was already toxic because of the trail of emails uncovered by the citizen activists who now seek the removal of Alderhold, Lewis and Reynolds.

[Read: Homer city council goes into full ‘resist’ Trump mode]

[Read: Homer city council backs away from ‘resist’ resolution]

If a special election is held, it will probably be in May, Zuccaro said. Then, if voters decide to remove the three, the remaining council members and mayor would appoint interim council members.

Two of those who are targeted for removal — Reynolds and Lewis — are up for re-election in October. The third, Aderhold, would face voters next year.

The complete email chain between the three that has Homer so stirred up has been posted in the Peninsula Clarion.

Homer recall petition gains ground

Does Jahna Lindemuth have the votes for confirmation as AG?

Commentary: Spending cap is key to solving budget crisis

Breaking news: Homer recall election set for June 13

Dan Fauske: The ‘passing of Superman’

Anchorage conservatives didn’t show up — where have they gone?

Reducing exposure, GCI looks to its own fiscal certainty by merging

Election: Anchorage plans to borrow money to make payroll

Monday newsletter outtakes: Opioid tax, pot taxes, Anchorage Muni election picks

Homer petitioners reach recall milestone

About us

The latest

Craig City Council considers controversial ‘Indian Country ordinance

Coast Guard Arctic District welcomes new commander in Juneau ceremony

Anchorage encampment ordinance postponed to next Assembly meeting