Found in the Juneau Empire’s story on the tax-and-crime special session today was this response from Rep. Chris Tuck, who currently serves as majority leader for the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.
The second runner-up for the quote of the week comes from Juneau Sen. Dennis Egan, another Democrat quoted in the same story:
Egan applauded the governor’s tax proposal.
“We have a problem and we have to fix it,” he said. “I’m really pleased about the governor not doing a sales tax, which is great for my district because all of my communities have a sales tax already.”
Egan went on to show his enthusiasm about the 50 (or likely 60) revenue agents that would be hired to administer the new income tax. That would be good for Juneau, he said.
“It’s going to cause an increase in employees, which is fine with me as long as they’re in Juneau,” Egan told the Empire.
Egan has justified collecting per diem while living at home in Juneau by pointing out that he would be able to wear blue jeans rather than a coat and tie if not for being in the Legislature.
On the Air Force’s 70th birthday, it was an unfortunate case of mistaken identity.
The USAF anniversary Facebook post of Gov. Bill Walker failed the vetting process and featured this, a photo of a Japanese F-15, which was likely a file photo from when the Japan Air Force was in Alaska for training in 2011:
Walker’s communications shop is to be forgiven. After all, the F-15 is moving pretty fast in the photo, and the Japanese are our allies. To many of us civilians, these jets are hard to differentiate.
When Facebook user Jeffrey Pete Peterson pointed out the mistake, the Governor’s Office hastily removed the embarrassing post above and replaced it with this version (and we call on our Air Force friends to identify the aircraft):
The U.S. Air Force celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. From the time that the US military purchased its first aircraft in 1909 up to 1947, the USAF was known by many other names: Aeronautical Section, Signal Corps; Aviation Section, Signal Corps; United States Army Air Service; United States Army Air Corps, United States Army Air Forces
President Truman signed the National Security Act on Sept. 18, 1947, establishing the U.S. Air Force as an independent service.
Earlier this month, Air Force leaders visited Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks with U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan to better understand Arctic strategic advantages.
“We all know Russia is significantly building its military presence in the Arctic,” Sullivan said. “We essentially have the leadership of the US Air Force in Alaska looking at these key issues and developing their own Arctic strategy.”
Sullivan posted this for the anniversary of the Air Force. Did he get it right? Jeffrey Pete Peterson says so.
Kyle Hopkins, managing editor and investigative reporter at KTUU, showed his journalistic doggedness after his and his wife Rebecca Palsha’s car was stolen from their Government Hill driveway on the night of Sept. 14. The theft left the family carless.
The game was afoot, as Sherlock Holmes would say. Hopkins took the matter to Facebook and posted photos of the car on Scanner Joe, Stolen in Anchorage, and Stolen in Alaska groups.
That actually was the advice of police — get the Facebook community engaged.
“(We) won’t send an officer for just one vehicle,” APD had told him.
“Police employee taking my report told me to post the details of the stolen car to Facebook groups that discuss Anchorage crime,” Hopkins reported.
The police are too busy in the Anchorage war zone responding to shootings, robberies, and the everyday barricading, so Facebook is now the go-to place to try to track down your stolen items, and social media crowdsourcing is the new detective agency.
The tips started rolling in. Hopkins took his Facebook followers on the chase with him, documenting his search for his car with the simplest of tools — his smart phone video camera.
He went to places where people had said his 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe was spotted. In one instance, he arrived 45 minutes too late. The car was gone. But someone had posted a picture of it on Facebook, at least.
“I did a little walk around the neighborhood and had kind of a scary encounter,” he reported.
The car was spotted near Dowling and 59th. Someone was driving it all over town.
Finally, the tips led him to a Carls Jr. in midtown, and he waited for police to roll up and arrest the perpetrators.
The drama unfolded behind him on his Facebook video, as police arrive.
Screen shot of Kyle Hopkins narrating as police arrest suspects who stole his car.
“I’m really grateful to the people who on the Facebook groups were looking out for the car,” he said, while police worked behind him with guns drawn to arrest the suspects.
In the car, police found syringes, drug paraphernalia, peanut butter, and a ski mask. Not a normal ski mask, either. This one was creepy.
Hopkins’ video captured the sound of police ordering the suspects to their knees in the background, as the reporter shut off the video and retreated to a safer location. He is, after all, a dad and a husband.
Things got interesting. Dead bodies started showing up.
Shortly after Hopkins retrieved his car, mainly undamaged, someone called in a tip to the KTUU tip line, and said they had found a corpse in the woods.
Hopkins went to investigate, and indeed, he and the tipster, Warren Hamilton, found one, and perhaps two corpses in a wooded area in Mountain View. In the hair-raising footage of them investigating, Hopkins brought along a camera operator and they walked into a wooded area where homeless camps and items were strewn about among the yellow foliage and damp debris between Reeve Boulevard and Tyson Elementary School near Ship Creek.
They found a skull, arm, and clothing. Hopkins called 911 to report the gruesome scene. The tipster had explained, rather vaguely, that he had tried to reach authorities without success.
Hopkins is a former Anchorage Daily News reporter who left not long after the Alaska Dispatch News purchased the newspaper. He’s a University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate.
Earlier this month, he used his video reporting skills to ask former Alaska Dispatch News publisher Alice Rogoff if she had anything to say to the staff of the newspaper as she was walking out of the news business and leaving a trail of unpaid bills behind.
As the wealthy East Coast heiress hurried out of bankruptcy court, she articulated her one answer to Hopkins in no uncertain terms: “No comment.”
Screen shot of Alice Rogoff, from Kyle Hopkins’ Facebook feed.
The investigative reporter posted with his brief encounter the fallen publisher on social media. Behind Rogoff, an Alaska Dispatch News photographer was still on his beat, documenting the demise of his own boss, while other members of the media stood by observing the drama unfold.
In July, Hopkins documented the sordid case of Jordan Joplin, a former exotic male dancer who is accused of stealing two tons of valuables, including watches, gold, and a coin collection worth up to $500,000 from a Ketchikan surgeon earlier this year — and murdering him.
Hopkins has had a remarkable few months of reportage on murder and mayhem in Alaska. What crime will this Sherlock Holmes track down next? Will he take up a pipe and trench coat? And has he learned to lock his car while in Anchorage?
The proclamation for the Oct. 23 special session is a lesson in commas. Or lack thereof.
The proclamation by Gov. Bill Walker states he is calling the Legislature back to Juneau to focus on two things: Crime, and a tax on the self-employed.
Yes, that is, in fact, what his proclamation says: Just the self-employed.
It’s a matter of comma usage:
“An act or acts enacting a tax on wages and net earnings from self-employment; and relating to the administration and enforcement of the wages and net earnings from self-employment tax.”
Without the comma between “wages” and “net earnings from self-employment,” it appears that all who work for others will not have to pay the Walker income tax. State workers, for instance.
His verbiage only targets the people who work for themselves, such as the smallest of the small business owners in Alaska.
Surely this isn’t what Walker intended. And surely there are enough commas to go around in Alaska, unless those, too, are in short supply.
When Sen. Kevin Meyer filed his letter of intent for the lieutenant governor’s race earlier this month, both of the Republican House members in his South Anchorage district were interested in filling the void in the Senate.
Rep. Chris Birch jumped in first, on a hunch, before Meyer had even announced for lieutenant governor.
House Minority Leader Charisse Millett also eyed the seat — after all it’s a lot more fun to be in the majority in the Senate than the minority in the House.
In the end, she went with the legislative body that is closest to the people in District 25. She filed for reelection to her House seat on Thursday, flanked by Rep. Birch and Sen. Meyer.
“We have a strong team in South Anchorage and it just makes sense to unite, and provide the House, the Senate and the governor’s team with a strong group of leaders,” she said. “This is how Republicans need to do it — working together. We need to provide stability in the House and I’m going to focus on issues like crime, the budget, and fighting to take back seats for the side that is standing between Alaskans and taxes.”
Gov. Bill Walker has given the first hint about how he intends to get more revenue for the State of Alaska during the Oct. 23 special session: It’s an income tax. Again. The Walker Administration claims it’s not an income tax, but rather a payroll tax.
Not an income tax, but tax based on income?
Walker was opposed to an income tax when he was running for governor, but has advocated for one ever since taking office. His 2016 proposal would have brought in $200 million of taxes from working Alaskans, and would grow state government by 60 new revenue agents. Alaska’s very own IRS.
By 2017, his plan had grown to nearly $800 million. And he’s offered several other revenue targets in a half dozen proposals his administration has put forward.
This one is Walker’s Goldilocks version, pulling in $300 million to fill the gap, whatever that gap may be.
Walker is hoping, like Goldilock’s third bowl of porridge, this time it’s “just right.”
The Walker tax would skim 1.5 percent off of wage earners, which would be capped once income reaches $150,000. The top-end taxpayers would pay $2,200 to the Department of Revenue to raise cash for the government.
Today’s reveal of the income tax came in the official proclamation for the special session, which includes criminal justice reform measures. The governor’s office distributed the packet for the tax bill this afternoon. Must Read Alaska has not seen the details yet.
The Democrat-led House majority favors an income tax, but the Senate Republican majority is still dead set against one, according to Sen. President Pete Kelly of Fairbanks.
“The Senate Majority supports a special session in October to address crime. Alaskans have legitimate concerns about our laws holding offenders accountable,” said Sen. Kelly in a statement. “The Senate already passed the legislation, SB 54, toughening penalties for certain crimes. We offer our support to the House to do the same, and stand by to work out any differences. Alaskans should feel safe in their homes and communities, and it is incumbent upon the Legislature to do our part to ensure criminals face consequences.”
“The Senate Majority welcomes additional discussion on the state’s fiscal problems, which we believe are best addressed by reducing government budgets and instituting a spending limit. We have asked the administration, before new taxes on working Alaskans are considered, to provide a budget for the coming fiscal year that includes reductions in spending, and a revised revenue forecast with responsible estimates of oil price and production,” he said.
“With this information in hand, the Senate will be able to accurately determine what, if any, actions must be taken to raise additional revenue from Alaskans. We want to make it clear that any ‘complete plan’ to address our fiscal problem cannot solely reach into Alaskans’ pockets for more government money, but must include budget reductions. Government has to do its part,” Kelly said.
His position was echoed by the Senate Majority Leader Peter Micciche today.
“Until the Senate is convinced that there is a gap over the long term, and when both sides agree on the range of the gap, we will continue to protect working Alaskans from taxes that unnecessarily overcapitalize this government,” said Micciche, of Soldotna.
“Our request to the administration was to very publicly and transparently meet in Anchorage in a work session, including people on both sides of the aisle, to clarify why they believe our numbers are incorrect, and to agree on a range going forward.”
Micciche said a work session rather than a special session would save the state per diem. It would give the governor the opportunity to have his team present their case in a place where many Alaskans could get to hear both sides. The Senate majority is also asking for updated revenue numbers from the Administration to better evaluate the actual fiscal gap.
Sen. Mia Costello announced today she will introduce a bill to repeal SB 91, the criminal justice reform bill that is being widely blamed for a crime wave across Alaska.
“While SB 91 was well-intentioned and well researched, my constituents, neighbors and friends are calling out for repeal of this bill,” Costello said. “A repeal bill is necessary. Every Alaskan is suffering from either a burglary, theft or threat of these crimes, or worse, making us feel unsafe in our own homes and neighborhoods.”
“We need to start fresh with a clean slate and move forward in a way that protects Alaskans. We’re not going to have a productive conversation if we are trying to untangle SB 91.”
Costello, who represents District K, which is West Anchorage, chairs the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee. She was a cosponsor of the omnibus bill.
Alaska’s bill resembles laws passed in Texas, which pioneered criminal justice reform. There, crime has started to go down, as the state spends money on data-driven methods that reducing crime. SB 91 has been in effect for a little more than one year, but Alaskans are experiencing an unprecedented crime wave.
The special session that will convene on October 23 will take up SB 54, which toughens penalties that were loosened by SB 91 for some less serious crimes.
SB 91 adopted evidence-based pretrial reforms, including the following elements from the UAA Justice Center summary of SB 91:
Risk-Based Release Decision-Making
Release decisions are made based on a defendant’s risk of re-offending, which is determined by using a screening mechanism:
Defendants fall into three categories:
Required release on personal recognizance or unsecured bond: Low- and moderate-risk defendants charged with non-violent, non-DUI misdemeanors; low-risk defendants charged with non-violent, non-DUI class C felonies.
Presumption of release on personal recognizance or unsecured bond, which can be overcome if the judge finds that monetary bail is the only way to reasonably assure court appearance and public safety: Defendants charged with DUI; low- and moderate-risk defendants charged with failure to appear or violation of release conditions; high-risk defendants charged with a non-violent misdemeanor; moderate- and high-risk defendants charged with a non-violent class C felony; and all other defendants assessed as low-risk for pretrial failure.
Monetary bail may be ordered: All other defendants, which includes any moderate- and high-risk defendant charged with a DV [domestic violence], or sex offense or higher-level felony. In all cases, the courts may order additional, non-monetary release conditions, including complying with pretrial supervision, so long as they are the least restrictive conditions necessary to assure court appearance and public safety.
Failure to Appear and Violation of Conditions of Release (VCOR)
Failure to Appearis now an arrestable violation, unless the defendant fails to appear for more than 30 days or in order to avoid prosecution, in which case it remains a misdemeanor or Class C Felony.
Violation of Conditions of Release is now an arrestable violation. Under SB 91, failure to appear and violation of conditions result in arrest, revoking bail, conducting a new pretrial risk assessment, and then either detaining the individual in prison or releasing the person with greater restrictions or conditions.
Felony Theft Threshold
SB 91 increases the threshold value for theft related offenses from $750 to $1,000 and requires the level to be adjusted every five years to account for inflation.
Shoplifting
SB 91 eliminates use of incarceration as a sanction for theft under $250 (first two offenses), and limits the use of incarceration to 5 days suspended imprisonment and six months of probation for subsequent shoplifting offenses.
Controlled Substances
SB 91 changed consequences for having controlled substances:
It reduces the classification of possession offenses for all controlled substances except GHB [gamma-hydroxybutyric acid] to a Class A Misdemeanor and eliminates active prison time for the first two misdemeanor possession offenses.
It reduces the penalty for commercial offenses relating to less than 1 gram of a IA substance or 2.5 grams of IIA or IIIA controlled substances to a Class C Felony, and more than 1 gram of a IA controlled substance to a Class B Felony.
Traffic Offenses
Senate Bill 91 includes the following policy changes related to traffic offenses:
Removes the mandatory minimum for first time DUI-related DWLS [Driving With License Suspended] offenders and reduces the mandatory minimum for second time DUI-related DWLS offenders to 10 days.
Reduces the penalty for non-DUI-related DWLS offenses from a misdemeanor to an infraction.
Requires first-time DUI offenders to serve a mandatory term of electronic monitoring. If this is unavailable, imprisonment is determined by the Department of Corrections.
Business entrepreneur and political activist Scott Hawkins filed a letter of intent to run for governor, becoming the fourth well-known Republican to do so.
Hawkins founded and has operated a supply chain management company for 18 years, with business in Alaska, the Lower 48, the Caribbean, and South America. Advanced Supply Chain International (ASCI) has approximately 200 employees.
Hawkins has been active in politics with The Accountability Project and AlaskaWins.org, which helps produce the annual Alaska Business Report Card, a project that scores legislators on how pro-business and pro-jobs their actions are in Juneau using a detailed and rigorous scoring criteria.
Hawkins is an economist by training and said his candidacy will focus on Alaska’s economy and growing jobs, as well as on closing the fiscal gap and public safety issues.
“In talking with people across Alaska, it is clear to me that voters are very dissatisfied. They overwhelmingly feel that Alaska is on the wrong track, and they hold our current leaders responsible. They are ready for a change of direction. They are ready for a governor who will bring new solutions and fresh ideas to Juneau,” Hawkins said.
The letter of intent allows Hawkins to raise funds and talk with Alaskans across the state about the future.
Hawkins said:
“I’ve spent a good amount of time in the Interior in the past few months just listening to people, and I’ve heard that we need to get our economy moving again.
“I’m upbeat about our future. More oil has been discovered in the past three years than at any time since the Prudhoe Bay discovery, and mining companies have more new projects in the pipeline than ever,” he said.
Hawkins said politicizing the Permanent Fund is the wrong direction.
“Governor Walker made a grave error when he vetoed the Permanent Fund dividend amount by half. Rather than being driven by a formula, it is now whatever the governor thinks it should be,” he said.
Hawkins is also hearing from Alaskans about crime:
“When Governor Walker signed criminal justice reform, Senate Bill 91, he touched off a crime wave. Our communities are much more dangerous than they were just two years ago. Public safety has deteriorated very quickly. Better approaches are needed. Simply failing to prosecute first and second time offenders is not the answer, nor is a return to high incarceration rates,” he said.
Hawkins launched his campaign website and will start his campaign in Ketchikan, Sitka, and Juneau in the coming days.
Hawkins is a senior contributor to Must Read Alaska, and through his organization, Alaska Wins, he is an advertiser on this web site.
