What started out as a $3,300 Permanent Fund dividend for 2024, as proposed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, has now been whittled to $1,600 by the Alaska Senate Finance Committee.
The committee has cut the proposed dividend by over 40% from the House of Representatives’ proposed version. The cut is also more than half of what Dunleavy set forth in his budget; the governor believes in following the formula that is written in Alaska law.
But the amount is not set in stone yet. The House of Representatives had settled on a $2,723 dividend, the Senate budget writers rolled out the $1,600 proposed dividend last week, and the final amount will be negotiated in “conference committee” at the end of the legislative session.
Dividends are sent out to qualifying Alaska residents each year as their share of the oil royalties, since subsurface rights in Alaska belong to the people. The amount is set by a formula in Alaska Statute, which has not been followed since Gov. Bill Walker broke the law in 2016 and cut the amount of Alaskans’ dividends in half. In 2019, the newly elected Gov. Dunleavy tried to restore the statutory formula but he is not allowed by law to add back money to the dividend, once the Legislature cuts it, which has happened every year since 2017.
The total operating budget for agency operations is set at $4.6 billion in state dollars in the Senate version. Adding in the federal dollars, the Senate budget is proposed to be nearly $12.8 billion. With the capital budget at $255.9 million in state spending and the Mental Health budget at $15.1 million, there is a $196.8 million surplus.
But that surplus may be eaten away by the more than $203 million in potential fiscal notes on things like House Bill 193 (Broadband), which has a cost of $39.4 million, and Senate Bill 170 (Senior Benefits) with a fiscal note of $23.5, as well as other fiscal additions; four unions are still negotiating salary adjustments, which could lead to 5% raises, totaling at least $26 million.
Gov. Dunleavy’s proposed budget, submitted to the Legislature in December, totaled $14.1 billion in state and federal funds, with a budget deficit of $987 million to be covered by a draw from the Constitutional Budget Reserve and the Statutory Budget Reserve.
The current Senate working version of the budget funds nearly 21,000 full-time state workers and one 2,300 permanent part time and temporary workers.
The Senate operating budget has, similar to the House version, a $175 million one-year extra funding for education, outside of the current Base Student Allocation funding formula.
The governor lost some items in the process. Legislators took out the Public Safety airplane the governor asked for and some of the public safety positions the governor wanted, for example.
The Legislature has 17 days left to finalize the budget, with the last day of session set at May 15.
“Let’s get this party started!” could have been the theme on Saturday in the MatSu Valley, as Sen. Dan Sullivan and the two Republican women’s clubs in the Mat-Su Valley hosted a celebration recognizing newly elected Alaska Republican Party Chairwoman Carmela Warfield.
About 100 people attended the “Unity Celebration” at MatSu Family Restaurant.
“This was opportunity for the party to do a little kick off with a pledge of unity and to really make statement, to come together, and what better place to do that than in the valley. Carmela is family as far as we’re concerned,” said Pam Melin, president of Valley Republican Women of Alaska.
Sullivan may have been the star guest for the event. But then came the unmistakable voice of Donald Trump: Sullivan had brought with him a recorded message from former President Trump, voicing support for Alaska and for Sen. Sullivan himself.
Sullivan in his remarks noted that President Joe Biden has now taken 63 executive actions against Alaska in three years — three more than he had when Sullivan developed the initial inventory of Biden’s adverse decisions back in January.
At this rate, the number of anti-Alaska actions by the Biden Administration is accelerating faster than Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s stock portfolio, someone in the room muttered.
Club presidents Kathy McCollum and Pam Melin, along with Sen. Dan Sullivan.Congressional candidate Nick Begich and Sen. Dan Sullivan, with Nick Begich IV.
The two clubs, MatSu Republican Women and Valley Republican Women of Alaska, raise money and volunteer for conservative candidates, and both have been supportive of Warfield in her campaign for party chair.
Kathy McCollum is the president of MatSu Republican Women and president of the MatSu School Board; she and Melin, who is elected to the Palmer City Council, have been working together build unity with conservatives in the Valley for many months.
“It was a fantastic continuation of the enthusiasm from the Republican convention. We are all so thrilled to be a part of helping our new chair, Carmela in her drive to bring unity to our party,” McCollum said.
“People are hungry for change and want to be part of it,” Melin said. “We have a job to do and that is to get our conservative candidates in. That’s what today was about, hoping others will follow along. We know the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club members feel the same way and I venture to say Fairbanks and Juneau do too.”
Sullivan repeated the comments of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, renown for the quip, “If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.” He noted the strong grassroots reputation that the Republican women’s clubs have in Alaska.
Sullivan also presented the Alaska Republican Party with a check for $5,000 as a show of support and unity.
Warfield spoke about how she has “hit the ground running this first week, going through leadership transition, putting together our committee chairs, putting plans in place for local pipelines of succession & preparing to train our grassroots activists, and how we are stronger, together.”
“I’m a proud and active member of both clubs, and they both came out for me very early and very strong,” Warfield said, of her landslide victory the week prior, when she was elected the new chairwoman in the final hours of the Alaska Republican Party state convention in Anchorage.
“I introduced Alaska’s good friend, Senator Sullivan, and mentioned the work he’s doing to push back on the Biden Administration and how Sen. Sullivan came out early to endorse President Trump,” Warfield said, who said she is proud to be a member of both valley Republican women’s clubs.
Spotted at the celebration were party officers: • Carmela Warfield, State Chairwoman • Ron Johnson, Region 2 Representative • Casey Campbell, D29 Chair • Carol Carman D29 Secretary • Ryan Sheldon, D30 Chair • Linn McCabe, D30 Bonus Vote • Executive board members of both women’s clubs
Also attending were other political activists and leaders:
• Nick Begich, candidate for U.S House • Edna DeVries, Mayor MatSu Borough • Ole Larson, MatSu School Board member • Rob Yundt, MatSu Assemblyman & candidate for State Senate • Kathy McCollum, President MatSu Women’s Club and MatSu School Board member • Pam Melin, VRWAK President and Palmer City Council • Jubilee Underwood, MatSu School Board President and State House candidate • Stu Graham, Wasilla City Council • Bill Kendig, board member and candidate, Matanuska Electric Association • Tom Bergey, MatSu school board member, former board president
Numerous members of community councils were also in attendance. The youngest Republicans present were Nick Begich IV and John Warfield.
House Bill 254, which adds liability for those who publish or distribute pornography, passed the Alaska House this week and is now in the Senate.
Sponsored by Rep. Sarah Vance, it is targeting a growing crisis in which minors who are consuming pornography that targets them at a rapidly accelerating rate, which is adding to the scourge of human trafficking and exploitation of minors.
Signing on as co-sponsors were Reps. Ben Carpenter, George Rauscher, and Andrew Gray.
Voting against the bill were Democrat Reps. Ashley Carrick, Sara Hannan, CJ McCormick, Donna Mears, and Genevieve Mina, and Republican Rep. David Eastman. The measure has been sent to the Alaska Senate for consideration.
Sex workers oppose the bill, which they see as cutting into their future “Only Fans” customer base.
A letter from the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project, based in San Francisco, says that while sex workers understand the importance of protecting minors from adult content, parental controls are sufficient, and the workers are fearing that they’ll be put out of business. It also warns of the risk of legal vulnerability for individuals posting adult content due to online piracy and the potential for leaks of private information. Additionally, the letter expresses worries about the intrusion on privacy and the accumulation of personal identifying information by the state government or third-party databases. Overall, the letter urged lawmakers to vote against HB 254.
The Woodall Freedom Foundation, also known as Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, also opposes the bill. The group advocates for sexual freedom as a fundamental human right: “Unfortunately, these bills are not only unconstitutional and a danger to consumer privacy, but they are also ineffective at preventing minors from accessing adult content. They are easily evaded through the use of VPNs (as more than 40% of minors already use the technology), have little impact on overseas and pirate sites, and fail to address adult content on search engines or social media where children are most likely to stumble upon it. In fact, these bills encourage the growth of explicit sexual content on non-adult sites,” the group wrote, without documentation.
Adult content creator Mattie Yukon also opposes the bill: “I am an adult content creator. I use my earnings from my adult content to support my subsistence lifestyle that was taught to me by my parents. If I lost this income I would replace it by traveling to engage in in person sex work in Fairbanks or Anchorage where serial killers like Brian Steven Smith target sex workers.”
Support for the bill, however, came from parents in side Alaska, who wrote to sponsors that Alaska’s children need legal protection from predatory porn producers.
The bill creates civil liability for any commercial entity that intentionally distributes pornography on the internet. Such a porn producer must use a commercially reasonable age-verification method to verify that a person attempting to access the pornography is 18 years of age or older. The bill can be read in its entirety at this link.
“I started with a promise to be a voice for the weak, for the voiceless, and for the vulnerable. Protecting kids from the material on the internet that can harm them for life is part of a continuing effort to keep that promise,” said House Judiciary Chair, Rep. Sarah Vance, of Homer.
With less than 18 days left in the current legislative session, it appears doubtful the Democrat-majority Senate will take meaningful action on the bill.
A two-person team fell approximately 1,000 feet while climbing Mt. Johnson, an 8,400-foot peak located in Denali National Park and Preserve’s Ruth Gorge, on the night of Thursday, April 25. One of the climbers died in the fall, while the other sustained serious traumatic injuries.
The roped climbers were ascending a route on Mt. Johnson known as “the Escalator,” a steep and technical alpine climb on the peak’s southeast face, the National Park Service said. The approximately 5,000-foot route involves navigating a mix of steep rock, ice, and snow.
Update: The person who died was Robbi Mecus. According to Emily Russell of NCPR public broadcasting, “She was beloved in the Adirondacks and has been a role model in the queer and outdoor community here [in the Adirondacks.] Public broadcasting reports, “Mecus was a leader among forest rangers in the Adirondacks, serving as a ranger since 1999. She was part of hundreds of searches and rescues over her career…”
The fall was witnessed by another climbing party on the route, who alerted the Alaska Regional Communication Center at approximately 10:45 p.m. The reporting party then descended to the accident victims and confirmed one climber had died in the fall. The responders dug a snow cave and attended to the surviving climber’s injuries throughout the night.
At 7 a.m. Friday morning, the park’s high altitude rescue helicopter pilot and two mountaineering rangers launched from Talkeetna. After an initial reconnaissance flight of the accident zone, a mountaineering ranger was short-hauled via long line to the awaiting climbers.
Together, the ranger and injured patient were short-hauled out to a flat glacier staging area, and then loaded into the helicopter for the flight to Talkeetna. The patient was transferred to a LifeMed air ambulance at the Talkeetna State Airport for further care.
Later that morning, the park helicopter and two rangers returned to the accident site to recover the body of the deceased climber, however they were turned back due to deteriorating weather and increasing cloud cover. Park rangers will return to the site when weather conditions allow.
The identity of the deceased climber is being withheld until family members are notified.
Alaska Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman, who earlier this month ruled that the State of Alaska may not reimburse families for the correspondence studies of Alaska students, must stand for his first retention election in November. But there’s a process that starts much earlier that involves public input on his performance.
The Alaska Judicial Council takes public testimony on judges standing for retention and reviews the judges’ performance, then makes a recommendation to the voters on whether a judge should be retained.
On Wednesday, May 8, a public hearing on the all judges standing for retention in November will take place via Zoom, an internet-based meeting website.
The Judicial Council’s public hearing will begin at 4:30 p.m. via this Zoom link. Meeting ID: 863 2522 6382 Passcode: 072643.
Participants can phone into the meeting at 833-928-4610 to give their testimony.
Written comments are also accepted by the Judicial Council and will be shared with the judge only after the comments have been edited to remove information that might identify you. Use this email link below to send your comments: [email protected]
Zeman may find headwinds in his retention after he ruled that the 24,000 Alaska students in correspondence school programs may not receive support from the state because that is, by his logic, considered “private school,” something he interprets as banned by the Alaska Constitution.
Correspondence programs that are reimbursed with public funds are approved and administered by school districts.
“This court finds that there is no workable way to construe the statutes to allow only constitutional spending, Zeman wrote. He said the state laws that allow reimbursements for books and materials for students using correspondence studies “must be struck down in their entirety.”
The judge did not consider that books and materials used in government schools are also purchased from private companies. His ruling could impact private tutors and specialists that are now used by districts to supplement classroom learning.
Zeman has had other controversial rulings since he was appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in 2020.
In November, he ruled that a regulation was illegal when he reenacted a ban on personal use jet skis or personal watercraft in Kachemak Bay. Fish and Game had repealed the regulatory ban, but Zeman stepped on that authority and said jet skis are prohibited in the Fox River Flats and Kachemak Bay “critical habitat areas.”
Fish and Game is appealing the ruling, saying it makes no sense that it, as an agency, has the authority to ban the jet skis but doesn’t have the authority to lift the ban based on current science. But the judge thought that, rather than the state having the authority, the court now has the authority to regulate, saying that although skiffs may be used in the area, personal watercraft may not be used.
The Alaska Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the appeal of Zeman’s ban on personal watercraft at 11 a.m. on July 31.
On Zeman’s recent decision that recently raised the ire of homeschool and correspondence studies families, a coalition of families and affected education providers is forming to craft a constitutional clarification, so that students in Alaska can continue to use correspondence courses and have state support for those classes, said Bethany Marcum, state director for Americans for Prosperity Alaska.
In Alaska, to modify the state constitution, a simple majority vote of 50%+1 is required by the public. There is no direct path from the citizenry via the initiative process to change the Alaska Constitution; the Legislature must put forward the ballot question on behalf of the citizens.
Getting the Alaska Legislature to move on the issue may require a special session, as the regular session must end on May 15, and there’s not been a lot of progress on the question. Some legislators want to do a statutory “fix,” but the judge was clear that there can be no statutory fix to what he sees as a constitutional mandate.
The Alaska Judicial Council has a detailed explanation of the judge retention process and how to take part at this link.
As outlined by the Judicial Council’s website, about six months before the retention election, the council meets to discuss the information gathered for these judicial evaluations, and to decide whether each judge met performance standards during his or her most recent term in office. These performance standards, which are defined in the council’s bylaws, are:
Legal Ability. The judge demonstrates knowledge of substantive law, evidence, and procedure, and clarity and precision in their work.
Impartiality/Fairness. The judge demonstrates a sense of fairness and justice and treats all parties equally.
Integrity. The judge’s conduct is free from impropriety or the appearance of impropriety, and the judge makes decisions without regard to possible public criticism.
Judicial Temperament. The judge is courteous and free from arrogance, and the judge manifests human understanding and compassion.
Diligence and Administrative Skills. The judge is prepared for court proceedings, works diligently, and is reasonably prompt in making decisions.
A judge may request an interview with the council before the council members vote on the retention recommendations. The council may also ask judges to speak with the council members during the final stages of the evaluation process. Judges may respond to concerns raised during the evaluation process and the council may conduct personal interviews with presiding judges, attorneys, court staff, and others about the judge’s performance.
At the conclusion of the process, the council publicly votes whether to recommend that each judge be retained in office, based on its determination that each judge either met or did not meet performance standards. Four votes by council members are necessary for the Judicial Council to recommend for or against the retention of a judge. The chair of the council — the chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court — does not vote except when a fourth vote is required for council action, in the event of a 3-3 tie.
The Judicial Council then publicizes the results of its evaluations at least 60 days prior to the election, as well as provide them to the lieutenant governor for inclusion in the state’s Official Election Pamphlet.
Each Alaska voter household receives the Official Election Pamphlet, which includes a page summarizing the Judicial Council’s performance evaluation of each judge. The council also posts non-confidential materials compiled during the evaluations on its web site.
One strategy for state officials looking to transition Washington’s transportation sector to electric vehicles is by subsidizing them with taxpayer dollars.
This week, Gov. Jay Inslee announced $45 million in subsidies through a Department of Commerce grant program for families deemed “low-income” to purchase an EV.
“Washingtonians really get it when it comes to electric vehicles,” Inslee said at a Wednesday news conference in Tukwila.
The program provides up to $9,000 for families to lease an EV, or $5,000 to purchase one. The grant program allows them to purchase either new or used EVs. The funding would be available to those who make 300% of the federal poverty level or less. And the grant will only stretch to about 9,000 people, if they all take the $5,000 deal being offered, or 5,000 people taking the $9,000 deal.
Inslee described it as a way to “democratize EVs. We’re not stopping here. We want to help the entire ecosystem, if you will, of electrifying our transportation fleet. We expect there are going to be a lot of folks that are going to be enjoying this benefit.”
Subsidies has been one recommendation made in the Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council’s transportation electrification strategy, in which residents would receive public dollars in exchange for giving up a fossil fuel vehicle to purchase an EV.
Inslee described it as a way to “democratize EVs. We’re not stopping here. We want to help the entire ecosystem, if you will, of electrifying our transportation fleet. We expect there are going to be a lot of folks that are going to be enjoying this benefit.”
The program has drawn criticism, including from Washington Policy Center Environmental Director Todd Myers. In a blog post, he argued that the subsidies won’t help reduce carbon emissions and is a waste of taxpayer money better spent on other environmental priorities, such as salmon recovery.
“This is one more example of how wasteful and ineffective Washington’s climate policy is,” he wrote. “It also reveals the disingenuousness of claiming that climate change is an ‘existential crisis’ while wasting tens of millions of dollars on projects that do nothing to address that crisis.”
The grant funds will be available to qualifying low-income residents in August.
The Alaska House on Wednesday passed legislation to bring property assessments into a more fair process.
Rep. Julie Coulombe of Anchorage introduced House Bill 347, a nearly identical companion to Senate Bill 242, introduced in the Senate earlier this legislative session by Sen. Jesse Kiehl of Juneau.
The bill is intended to restore trust in the property assessment process — trust that has been broke in at least Juneau and Haines, where properties were not only given extraordinary assessments, but when at least one property owner challenged the assessment, the assessor made a punishing decision to increase the assessment even more.
“HB 347 is my bill to put more guardrails around property assessments,” Coulombe said in a Facebook post. “We heard an overwhelming amount of testimony about why this bill is needed to protect property owners. I was grateful for support from my colleagues. “You can watch the floor session here:”
Current law allows for assessors to increase assessments on appeal, which has had a chilling impact on the public’s ability to challenge an assessment, as people fear retaliation.
While House Bill 347 still allows for flexibility at the local level, it creates some baseline standards for assessors.
Rep. David Eastman and Rep. Jesse Sumner voted against the bill, which received support from all other members of the House who were present. The bill has bipartisan support, however. Co-sponsors include Representatives Frank Tomaszewski, Mike Prax, Andi Story, Ben Carpenter, George Rauscher, Sara Hannan, Sarah Vance, Andy Josephson, Stanley Wright, Jamie Allard, Mike Cronk, and Dan Saddler.
The bill is now in the Alaska Senate. Senate Bill 242 has been stuck in Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee since being referred there on Feb. 19. That committee is chaired by hardline leftist Sen. Forrest Dunbar.
The fertility rate in the United States has plunged to its lowest point on record, signaling a demographic shift, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“The general fertility rate in the United States decreased by 3% from 2022, reaching a historic low. This marks the second consecutive year of decline, following a brief 1% increase from 2020 to 2021. From 2014 to 2020, the rate consistently decreased by 2% annually,” the CDC reported.
The new report, “Births: Provisional Data for 2023,” analyzes data from more than 99% of birth certificates issued during that year. The report shows a 2% decline from 2022, with 3,591,328 births recorded in 2023.
The CDC found that birth rates declined for women ages 20-39, were unchanged for females 10-14 and women 40-49, and were down for teenagers aged 15-19. The birth rate for women ages 20-24 reached a record low.
This is occurring at the same time transgenderism is reaching record highs. According to a study at the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute published in 2022, estimating there are 1.6 million transgender people 13 and older. The number of teenagers and young adults in the United States who identify as transgender has doubled in the past five years, the study shows.
The CDC and news agencies did not make the link. But according to the UCLA report, 18- to 24-year-olds make up 11% of the U.S. population but represent be 24% of the transgender community.
In 2021, the Biden Administration replaced the word “woman” with the phrase “birthing person” in the CDC maternal guidelines and other publications across its massive website.
Now, in a departure from its use of “birthing persons” as a description of women, both the CDC and news groups reported the statistics about the drop in births by using the terms “female” and “woman.” Birthing persons were nowhere in the report.
“After a steep plunge in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the fertility rate has fluctuated. But the 3% drop between 2022 and 2023 brought the rate just below the previous low from 2020, which was 56 births for every 1,000 women of reproductive age,” CNN reported.
“After a steep plunge in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the fertility rate has fluctuated. But the 3% drop between 2022 and 2023 brought the rate just below the previous low from 2020, which was 56 births for every 1,000 women of reproductive age,” wrote ABC News, also avoiding the term “birthing persons.”
In November, a story about births in Louisiana, ABC used the government term, “birthing people.”
“Among all states, birthing people living in Louisiana are the most vulnerable to ‘poor maternal health outcomes,'” the news agency said.
And on April 8, 2024, the CDC wrote, “During Black Maternal Health Week, learn how you can support pregnant people in your life to reduce factors that contribute to pregnancy-related complications and death.”
Both the government and news organizations said that the factors contributing to the low birth rate were housing affordability, job security, and the high cost of child care. They did not mention the indoctrination of youth and college students into what is sometimes described as anti-humanism as part of the radical environmental agenda taught in educational institutions.
In 2017, the Federal Aviation Administration revoked James M. Fejes Jr.’s pilot’s license, after he had been flying cannabis products to shops around Alaska with Flying High Investments, his company that was dissolved in 2020.
Fejes challenged the revocation in federal district court, saying the federal government does not regulate commerce within the state of Alaska. He was not crossing state lines with his bundles of weed, so interstate commerce laws didn’t apply. His arguments failed the Ninth Circuit.
“Although many states have legalized recreational marijuana, it continues to be a controlled substance federally,” Judge Ryan D. Nelson wrote in the ruling.
Fejes, who held a pilot certificate issued by the FAA, came under scrutiny after Alaska’s Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office (AMCO) reported him for violating regulations pertaining to the transportation of marijuana. Despite marijuana being legalized for most uses under Alaska state law, Fejes’s activities were deemed illegal under federal statutes.
The FAA invoked § 44710(b)(2), a provision that mandates the revocation of a pilot certificate when the individual knowingly engages in an activity related to controlled substances punishable by imprisonment for more than one year. Fejes’s use of aircraft for the distribution of marijuana fell squarely within this provision, leading to the revocation of his pilot certificate.
Fejes contested the revocation, arguing that the FAA lacked jurisdiction to regulate purely intrastate commerce such as marijuana delivery within Alaska. However, the panel rejected this argument, citing the constitutional authority of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, including the use of airspace.
Furthermore, Fejes attempted to invoke an exemption under FAA regulation 14 C.F.R. § 91.19, which allows for the transportation of controlled substances authorized by federal or state statutes. However, the FAA maintained that this exemption did not apply to Fejes’s case, as it relied on a different provision in law.
Finally, Fejes challenged the interpretation of § 44710(b)(2) by the FAA, arguing that his conduct did not align with enforcement priorities outlined in a memorandum on marijuana-related prosecutions. However, the panel dismissed this argument, emphasizing that a criminal conviction is not a prerequisite for the revocation of a pilot certificate under the statute.
The ruling fortifies the FAA’s authority to regulate aviation activities, even in the context of state laws that conflict with federal statutes.
While the U.S. Department of Justice has directed prosecutors to use discretion in spending resources to pursue marijuana crimes in states where pot is legal, the court opinion noted: That “does not alter marijuana’s status — it remains illegal under federal law.”
