During the first seven months of Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, which ends Sept. 30, spending on the federal government’s net interest on borrowing has reached $514 billion. That exceeds spending on both national defense ($498 billion) and Medicare ($465 billion), according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Overall spending has totaled $3.9 trillion thus far. Spending on interest is also more than all the money spent this year on veterans, education, and transportation combined.
“Interest on the debt is currently the fastest growing part of the budget, nearly doubling from $345 billion (1.6 percent of GDP) in FY 2020 to $659 billion (2.4 percent of GDP) in 2023, and net interest is on track to reach $870 billion (3.1 percent of GDP) by the end of FY 2024. Spending on interest is now the second largest line item in the budget and is expected to remain so for the rest of the fiscal year,” the watchdog group reported. By 2051, interest will be the largest line item in the budget.
“Rising debt will continue to put upward pressure on interest rates. Without reforms to reduce the debt and interest, interest costs will keep rising, crowd out spending on other priorities, and burden future generations,” CRFB said at this link.
The U.S. Debt Clock says national debt from all government sources is nearly $35 trillion. Interest on the national debt is $827 billion as of this writing, on the debt clock.
At a Alaska Senate Finance Committee hearing last week, the committee gave SalmonState, an Outside group funded by dark money, 40 minutes to present a report that pushed the narrative that the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) should be defunded.
The report was made by two hired guns contracted by SalmonState — longtime political operatives Milt Barker and Gregg Erickson. They said AIDEA has nothing to show for itself. Committee members Sen. Lyman Hoffman and Donny Olson attacked AIDEA for its support of the Ambler Access Project, which would provide a road to the proposed Ambler Mine.
Randy Ruaro, executive director of AIDEA, was given just a few minutes to respond, and talked briefly about the mathematical, wrong assumptions, and other flaws of the SalmonState report.
For instance, SalmonState said Alaskans and Alaskan family businesses that AIDEA supports through its loan program “are a waste.” It’s a characterization that Ruaro disputed.
That’s when Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl pounced. He found something in the packet of materials AIDEA had provided that he felt was offensive. It as an opinion written by Ruaro that pointed out that Salmon State is funded by the dark money group Arabella Advisors through its New Venture Fund.
Sen. Kiehl said that by mentioning “George Soros and other elites”, Ruaro had used a “dog whistle” to refer to someone that “not one at this table would be seen with. So I will ask as this as as I can what in the name of heaven is that doing in your materials?”
“Dog whistle” is a dog whistle for antisemitism, in this usage. Kiehl went on to explain that his daughter is a student at Columbia University and he pointed out that she is a Jewish student at that, something that had nothing to do with the economic development agency. He brought up campus protests and said using terms like “Soros” makes him afraid for his daughter’s safety.
Ruaro, it turns out, is part Jewish from his paternal grandmother, who was a Russian Jew.
Watch the attack on Ruaro here:
Watch as Sen. Jesse Kiehl accuses AIDEA of a 'dog whistle' for calling out George Soros and Arabella Advisors for working to destroy Alaska's economy. Incredible a lawmaker would do this. pic.twitter.com/H1aUMUqBMH
Ruaro responded that the point of the editorial being included in the senators’ packet was to show how Arabella Advisors operates and how it funded the inaccurate report that Erickson and Barker had just made. Arabella was under investigation for abusing its nonprofit status but was cleared by the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice in April.
Ruaro said the purpose of the op-ed was to show how Alaska is continually attacked by Outside groups.
As it appeared in Must Read Alaska, the op-ed said in part:
“Research by AIDEA and others shines a light on Arabella Advisors and its many tentacles as a key player in the world of dark money politics. Connections between Arabella Advisors and influential funds, such as the ‘New Venture Fund,’ and groups like ‘Salmon State’ raise serious questions about the extent of their influence and motives.
“Recent reports highlight the influence of foreign billionaires, their donations, and murky financial dealings orchestrated by Arabella Advisors and its ‘New Venture Fund.’
“For example, here in Alaska, Salmon State is funded in part by the New Venture Fund with donors such as George Soros and Swiss billionaire, Hansjörg Wyss. The largest foundations in the world are using this dark money lobbying network to influence policy in Alaska.”
Read Ruaro’s entire op-ed here to see what Kiehl was objecting to:
This is going back to the “It’s a trope!” well for the Juneau senator. Kiehl, when he was running for the Senate to represent Juneau in 2018, used the “dog whistle” argument. He and his campaign accused the Capital City Republican Women of anti-semitism for opposing his candidacy with a mailer that said, “If you give Jesse Kiehl your vote, you may as well give him your wallet.” His campaign accused the women of using red and black as colors in the mailer, which his supporters said shows they are antisemitic. Public radio KTOO legitimized his points with full coverage.
Front side of a mailer by Republicans against Kiehl in 2018, which his campaign said was anti-semitic. KTOO had darkened the color on the hands to make them look blood-red in their report about the mailer.
The 907 Initiative, a separate but equally dark money group funded by subsets of the Arabella Advisors network, is also running a campaign against AIDEA, calling the board members “losers.” In the attack ad, the 907 Initiative calls AIDEA “Losers,” and the group has cartoonishly marked up the faces of Alaskans who are serving on the AIDEA board to make them look like devils, demons, pirates, and clowns.
A campaign by the 907 Initiative against AIDEA includes this image of some of the board members of AIDEA.
907 Initiative is the same as its sister group, 907 Action, a political entity that is attacking Mayor Dave Bronson and supporting the campaign for mayor of Suzanne LaFrance. The group also attacks Gov. Mike Dunleavy and other Republicans.
Part of the strategy of SalmonState (Arabella Advisors) and 907 Initiative (also Arabella Advisors), is to cut AIDEA off at the knees before another possible Trump presidency.
Donald Trump is polling strongly in swing states and looks to be a real threat to the no-development-ever Biden Administration. It’s likely that a Trump Administration would look at the Ambler Mine at least somewhat more favorably because it would bring jobs to a rural part of the state that has few jobs, and would provide valuable minerals needed for everything from cell phones to national security.
907 Initiative’s campaign against AIDEA on the day of the hearing included an ad at the top of the Anchorage Daily News.
On the same day of the hearing last week, the 907 Initiative ran a banner ad in the Anchorage Daily News, calling for the defunding of AIDEA. It appears the 907 Initiative and SalmonState are coordinating their attacks on AIDEA.
The attack on AIDEA also comes at a time when Alaska Senate Democrats would love to get their hands on AIDEA’s budget and are eager to divvy it up amongst their districts for their own pet projects.
Ruaro said “It’s a war on Alaska. They’re trying to stop Alaskans from having good-paying jobs in development and disrespecting all the Alaska families that have gotten loans to start their businesses.”
Late in the evening on Sunday, the Alaska House of Representatives passed House Bill 183, a measure that would protect girl and women athletes from unfair competition in their sports by boys and men who prefer to present as females (transgenders).
HB 183 was contentious from the moment it was introduced, in that Democrats put up more objection to this bill than any other in recent memory, adding amendment after amendment to delay a vote. Those who spoke against the bill could barely contain their emotions Sunday night. Showing fatigue and personal trauma, their voices shook, their bodies trembled, and some of them were on the verge of tears or choked up to the point they could barely continue.
Selected floor remarks by House members prior to the final vote on HB 183:
Bill sponsor Rep. Jamie Allard: “Like my mom, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother before me, I plan on protecting my daughters. Expecting girls and women to be physically equal to boys and men is not equality. Equality is giving girls the same opportunities as boys and men. But madam speaker, if forced to compete against biological males, women will be disadvantaged once again.”
Bill opponentRep. Andrew Gray: “In their biological brains, trans girls are biologically female.”
Bill opponentRep. Louise Stutes: “I’m astounded we have spent days on a bill, House Bill 183, that is unquestionably unconstitutional. Aside from the fact that there’s not one of these instances addressed in this bill happening in Alaska today.”
Bill opponent Rep. Alyse Galvin: “We have heard from dozens of kids and parents that this bill will do significant harm to a large number of Alaskans who are trans or who have loved ones who are trans.”
Bill opponent Rep. Andy Josephson: “So yes, could these bizarre circumstances happen where there’s a transgender girl who by size and acumen and talent, could compete at the highest levels with boys and men but chooses to compete with girls, yes that could happen, and that concerns me. Now, when I say concerns me, it’s like the 5,000th thing in the world that concerns me. I’m more concerned about getting home to work my lawn than I am about that, by a lot.”
Bill opponent Rep. Jennie Armstrong: “When I was a junior in high school, I left the church because of anti-LGBTQ propaganda. I knew that my church had it wrong and that my god centers love and acceptance. And I was so grateful that I was able to separate god from dogma at a young age.”
Bill opponent Rep. CJ McCormick emotionally relived childhood trauma while he described how he was bullied, but how sports was his place where he could make friends out of those who bullied him.
Bill opponent Rep. Zack Fields: “This is a blatantly unconstitutional bill. Our attorneys have told us that based on clearly false information. It would put findings that are sexist in state statute. It is morally offensive to put discriminatory laws on our statute books again 79 years after the state of Alaska passed the anti-discrimination act. The most absurd thing about this bill is that it would force all girls, my girls, to undergo a genital inspection test.”
Sponsor Rep. Jamie Allard: Madam Speaker, there are members of this body who are misunderstanding this bill. They are saying this bill provides for a general inspection of genitalia. Wow. Madam Speaker, that’s gross. That is absolutely insane. The narrative that is being put out to all Alaskans across this great state is trying to do a scare tactic. Nowhere in this two-and-a-half page bill does it say anything about genitalia exams. That is just not true.”
Watch the exchange with Rep. Gray at this clip, where Allard calls out the media to find any portion of the bill that requires genital exams:
House Bill 183, in support of girls in sports, defended by Rep. Jamie Allard, who calls out the lies being promulgated by the Democrats. @Riley_Gaines_ Watch as Rep. Gray admits that the shoe fits: pic.twitter.com/agTfhyxZVU
The votes on the bill went largely along party lines, with only Rep. Daniel Ortiz of Ketchikan breaking with the Democrat caucus to vote with Republicans:
Yeas: Jamie Allard, Thomas Baker, Ben Carpenter, Julie Coulombe, Mike Cronk, David Eastman, Craig Johnson, DeLena Johnson, Kevin McCabe, Tom McKay, Daniel Ortiz, Mike Prax, George Rauscher, Justin Ruffridge, Dan Saddler, Laddie Shaw, Will Stapp, Jesse Sumner, Cathy Tilton, Frank Tomaszewski, Sarah Vance, and Stanley Wright.
Nays: Jennie Armstrong, Ashley Carrick, Maxine Dibert, Bryce Edgmon, Zack Fields, Neal Foster, Alyse Galvin, Andrew Gray, Cliff Groh, Sara Hannan, Rebecca Himschoot, Andy Josephson, CJ McCormick, Donna Mears, Genevieve Mina, Cal Schrage, Andi Story, and Louise Stutes.
House Bill 183 is seen by most observers as dead in arrival in the Democrat-led Senate, as time has run out for this session. The Legislature must adjourn May 15.
We still do not have a clear path forward to enable new drilling to allow increase in production of Cook Inlet gas. After years of our federal government blocking all our attempts to increase our oil and gas economy, we have legislators adding additional taxes onto HB 50 to further stifle our current attempts to get increased Cook Inlet gas production and to provide for ways to help develop energy resources which could eventually be the replacement for Cook Inlet gas.
As stated in many of my earlier commentaries, there is no action more important than to ensure the immediate increase in production of Cook Inlet Gas. Next to that the most important thing is to do nothing which will discourage future investment in Alaska’s oil and gas production.
An additional income tax on Hilcorp can only discourage investment in developing new production or enhanced production on the fields for which they are responsible. Now is when we are trying to add flow to the pipeline to add to what Willow and Pikka will contribute once they are in production.
I encourage Alaska residence to show lack of support for this proposed tax and stand behind the concept of increasing revenue by increased use of our resources. We want to build wealth, make many more jobs and increase the number of viable businesses within the State. I encourage everyone to contact your legislators and voice you disapproval of this new tax and voice support for “revenue by resource extraction.”
A part of SB 217 is the Integrated Transmission Planning and the formation of the Railbelt Transmission Organization, which will require each of the utilities to give up that portion of their physical plant through which power flows between the different utilities that make up the Railbelt Utility System.
It seems to me that this might be difficult to do cleanly at this time, and that the RTO would be more meaningful once the new transmission line which is intended to be separate from the individual utilities. Maybe the wording should soften the penalty (Sec 44.83.740 (c )) against the individual utility which might not clearly define what part of their system is transmission and not distribution. I can see this transition being used to a position not in the best interest of their ratepayers.
It is my hope that all these energy bills be adopted to be much more positive than they are negative.
Robert Seitz, is a professionally licensed electrical engineer and lifelong Alaskan.
The rise of antisemitic and anti-Christian vandalism is the motivation behind House Bill 238, which makes it a Class C felony to target houses of worship with property crimes.
The bill amends Alaska’s statute on criminal mischief in the third degree to include the crime of “institutional vandalism.” According to the sponsor, Rep. Andy Josephson, 42 states and Washington, D.C. make this and desecration of a grave crimes that are more serious than regular property damage.
Alaska already considers it a Class C felony to deface, desecrate, or destroy a cemetery or place of burial. The additional language adds places like churches and synagogues.
The bill adds the extra penalties to someone who “defaces or damages real property that (i) has a place of religious education or worship located on it; and (ii) if leased or used by a religious organization and is a part of a larger property, is the part of the property leased or used by the religious organization, including the access to the entry of the part of the property; or (D) defaces or damages tangible personal property that has religious significance and is used by religious organization or displayed for educational purposes.”
It would be a Class C felony if the property value is $750 or more, a Class A misdemeanor if the property value was between $250 and $750, and a Class B misdemeanor if the property value is less than $250.
Josephson’s office mentioned that there have been three recent desecrations of note: Mountain City Church in Anchorage, where someone used a chemical to burn a swastika shape onto the front lawn; a smashed crucifix at a church in Chefornak, and a phallic symbol painted on the entryway of a church in Eagle River. Nazi stickers were plastered on the walls of the Alaska Jewish Museum, and a swastika was carved onto the door.
In the Senate, the amended bill passed 17-2, with Sen. Shelley Hughes excused.
The Alaska House of Representatives passed legislation Friday that would revise the state’s tax structure on cannabis. If passed by the Senate, House Bill 119 will change the tax from $50 per ounce ($800 per pound) of product to a 7% sales tax.
HB 119 passed the House 36-3; voting against the measure were Reps. Ben Carpenter, David Eastman, and CJ McCormick.
In 2014, voters in Alaska approved a ballot measure legalizing commercial growing and sales of cannabis, and accompanying tax structure.
Alaska is one of five states, including Colorado, Maine, Nevada, and New Jersey, that use use a weight-based cannabis tax, where growers have the responsibility for remitting taxes based on the weight of various parts of the plants.
With the proposed sales tax, Alaska’s tax occurs at the point of sale, rather than on the growers, who now represent the largest agricultural sector in Alaska in the less than a decade that growing and selling marijuana has been legal.
The top taxes for marijuana in the nation remain:
Washington: 37%
Virginia: 21%
Montana: 20%
Arizona: 16%
California and Colorado: 15%
The only other true statewide sales tax in Alaska is the 8 cents per gallon for highway fuel and 5 cents per gallon on marine fuel collected by the state.
HB 119, sponsored by the House Rules Committee, comes after a task force was convened by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to study and recommend a different tax structure, at the request of growers. The Alaska Marijuana Control Board also was in favor, by a vote of 4-to-1, of creating a different tax structure. The original version of the bill proposed a 3% tax, but that was worked up to 7% throughout the legislative journey.
“While a reduced tax structure will, in the short term, lower the state’s revenue stream, it will also help prevent the decline of the industry which would ultimately drive tax revenue downward. This change in tax structure will not only stabilize the industry while providing areas for Alaskan businesses to grow, but it will also allow the state to capture revenue from value-ad products which will increase the tax base,” the Rules Committee said in a statement at the time of introduction.
HB 119 has been sent to the Senate, where it has been referred to Senate Finance Committee only, but has not been scheduled for a hearing. The last day of session is May 15 and if the bill does not pass, it will die and sponsors will need to reintroduce it next year.
For over a decade, Hilcorp Alaska has been proud to be the driving force in the Cook Inlet basin, investing significantly in Southcentral Alaska. When we entered the Alaska market, the basin was in rapid decline, and few investors were willing or able to put up the capital required to produce more oil and gas from the aging fields. Since then, we’ve invested more than a billion dollars in the Cook Inlet basin, generating well over 700 billion cubic feet of natural gas to power and heat Alaskan homes and businesses.
Our team of more than 1,500 Alaska employees has worked to stabilize the natural gas supply for the Railbelt. Our efforts have included drilling more than 155 new wells, implementing new technologies, and repairing aging infrastructure. And recently, Hilcorp made a long-term commitment to ensure the only jack-up drilling rig in Alaska doesn’t leave the state at this critical time.
Unfortunately, aside from Hilcorp Alaska, industry investment in the Cook Inlet basin has continued to decline, making our operations increasingly difficult. The necessary equipment is hard to source, especially on short notice, and contractor services are hard to find. In addition, the federal permitting processes are more tedious than ever. These challenges all layer on top of what is already only a six-month offshore drilling season.
Even with these headwinds making operations difficult, Hilcorp Alaska is deepening its commitment to the Cook Inlet, planning to deploy up to four drilling rigs to add 15 to 20 new wells annually over the next five years. This near-billion-dollar investment is crucial not only to sustain our current operations, but also to meet future needs, despite the 30% year-over-year production decline that’s common in Cook Inlet wells.
We are doing what we can, where we can. During the recent cold spell in February, when the utility-owned gas storage facility faced operational issues, Hilcorp Alaska did not just meet, but exceeded its contractual obligations by releasing additional gas reserves to ensure uninterrupted energy supply without increasing prices. Similarly, even as our contract with Homer Electric Association concluded in March 2024, we provided an extra year of gas supply at stable prices, smoothing their transition to other energy sources. And we are collaborating with the utilities and regulatory agencies to make our gas storage assets available for commercial use.
Hilcorp Alaskahas and will continue to fully develop our Cook Inlet basin leasehold with a specific focus on delivering a reliable and affordable supply of natural gas.
As Hilcorp Alaska continues to invest in and expand our natural gas production in the Cook Inlet basin, we remain in constant contact with utilities, state and local governments, and the community. With so many Alaskans living and working for Hilcorp Alaska, our employees are personally committed to delivering lasting energy solutions for Alaska.
By Luke Saugier is the senior vice president of Hilcorp Alaska.
A YouTube ad by the leftist RepresentUs group stars Sen. Cathy Giessel, who was elected because of ranked-choice voting, and Sen. Matt Claman, both extolling the benefits of the new system that went into action in Alaska elections in 2022, turning the U.S. House seat Democrat, and handing Democrat control over in the State Senate.
Giessel says in the ad how she very much expected bipartisan leadership of the Senate after ranked-choice voting was passed by voters in 2020. The measure, Ballot Measure 2, was paid for by dark money groups outside the state that use Alaska as a petrie dish or experiments to drive liberal public policy. The Arabella Fund, New Venture Fund, Tides Foundation, and others are some of these dark-money groups that have an oversized influence on public policy in Alaska. They are groups few have ever heard of — just like the RepresentUs group, which gets funding from the Tides Foundation.
In the Alaska Senate, the Republican majority gave over control to minority Democrats after the 2022 election, awarding them powerful committee chairmanships, moving their priority bills, and blocking legislation Democrats opposed.
Only three members of the Senate were excluded from that majority — Robb Myers of North Pole, Shelley Hughes of Mat-Su, and Mike Shower of Wasilla. Their minority is so small it doesn’t even qualify as a minority in technical terms. They are completely shut out of the process by the 85% majority, the largest in the country, according to Claman.
That’s something Giessel supports. She said when Claman was in the House and she was in the Senate, “there was a lot of cross-pollination,” and “there were bills that we worked together on.”
Giessel said people are so committed to this caucus “for the first time in a number of years.”
The last time there was a “bipartisan working group,” as it was called in the Senate, was in 2010, when all 10 Democrats and six Republicans created the caucus, led by Sen. Gary Stevens, Sen. Bert Stedman, Sen. Lyman Hoffman and the late Sen. Johnny Ellis.
Hoffman that year lauded the Bipartisan Working Group, saying it would pay back everything that had been borrowed out of the Constitutional Budget Reserve.
“This year, we hope to do something that would have seemed impossible ten years ago,” said, who was co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, as he is in 2024. “After twenty years of borrowing from it, we think we can fully repay the state’s constitutional savings account. Saving, not borrowing – this is a very tangible sign of our fiscal responsibility.”
Back then the balance of the fund was $9 billion. Today, the balance is $2.79 billion. The bipartisan promise was not exactly kept.
This year, Senators Stevens, Stedman, and Hoffman are part of the new bipartisan majority caucus, and Giessel, thrown out by her constituents for being too liberal in 2020, but returned to the Senate after ranked-choice voting came into play in 2022, quickly joined in what is a nine-Democrat, eight-Republican leadership group that is raiding Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividends in order to balance the budget.
Giessel calls this a “balanced budget that actually had a surplus.”
To get a sense of how RepresentUs aligns with leftist values, funder Atlantic Foundation also has made grants to the media group most associated with the leftist The Nation publication. The Park Foundation works to destroy natural gas as an energy source, and has made grants to Greenpeace and the pirate environmental group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Tides Foundation is best described as fake nonprofit that launders away the paper trail between its grants and the original donor.
RepresentUs has targeted Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon, Georgia, Minnesota, and Utah to expand and protect ranked-choice voting. It is also actively working to dismantle the Electoral College and replace it with a national popular vote, which would strip the lightly populated states like Alaska of their representation.
In Seattle, RepresentUs worked to advance and protect the use of “democracy vouchers,” which requires the city’s taxpayers to pay for political campaigns against their will. Since the new law passed in 2015, taxpayers in Seattle now must pay for the campaigns of people with whom they do not necessarily align. In 2023, taxpayers paid $2.4 million to 30 campaigns for city council.
Once a reliable vote for conservatives, Giessel now works to raise taxes on oil and gas companies, put unaffordable pension plans into place for public employees, and allow counselors in schools to refer children to “identity clinics” where they can get gender transition help, without telling their parents. She even is voting against strengthening the laws that protect the unborn.
A lawsuit by several California youth against the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming their constitutional rights have been violated by carbon dioxide emissions, was dismissed in a federal appeals court judge last week.
The lead plaintiff in the case, “Genesis B,” was a 17-year-old Long Beach, Calif. girl whose parents said they could not afford air conditioning.
“On many days, Genesis must wait until the evening to do schoolwork when temperatures cool down enough for her to be able to focus,” the lawsuit said.
According toFastCompany, Alaska leads the states in terms of homes without air conditioning, but 28% of California homes also don’t have AC:
Alaska (7%)
Washington (53%)
Hawaii (57%)
Montana (65%)
Vermont (67%)
Maine (70%)
Wyoming (71%)
California (72%)
The Genesis lawsuit was similar to Juliana v. EPA, dismissed a few days prior, in which the lawyers claimed the federal government is constitutionally required to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The plaintiffs cited the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause.
The Juliana case, with 21 young people that included Nathan Baring, a third-generation Alaskan, said the government “willfully ignored” dangers posed by fossil fuels, which violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to life, liberty and property. That case was also dismissed on May 1, and the judge said Genesis was not materially different.
But in the Genesis case, Judge Fitzgerald granted the plaintiffs the ability to amend their complaint, and Our Children’s Trust immediately said it would do so without delay.
In Alaska in 2022, the Alaska Supreme Court upheld the Superior Court’s dismissal of a lawsuit brought by young Alaska Natives and their lawyers, which alleged the State of Alaska’s development of its natural resources contributed to climate change and thus was a violation of the Alaska Constitution’s natural resources provisions and their own individual constitutional rights.
Another youth lawsuit in Montana went in favor of the environmentalists, but is being appealed.
