A 40+ page bill filed in the Alaska Senate is designed to close a loophole that Hilcorp has been able to take advantage of due to its corporate structure was filed today by Senate Rules.
SB 0114 is an act “establishing an income tax on certain entities producing or transporting oil or gas in the state; relating to the oil and gas production tax,” and has been referred only to the Senate Finance Committee, which means it is on the fast track.
The Alaska State budget is suffering from a shortfall in revenues due to the price of Alaska crude oil being lower than was anticipated by last year’s forecast.
The bill says that any entity that has a qualified taxable income of over $4 million in a tax year shall pay a tax of 9.4% of the qualified taxable income over that $4 million amount. There area number of other provisions in the lengthy bill, but it’s clear from the bill that it is targeting Hilcorp, which is an LLC corporation and thus is not covered by some of Alaska’s oil tax structure.
Hilcorp took over the running of Alaska’s major oil fields as BP Alaska exited the state. This story will be updated.
What does it say about the state of Big Labor in Anchorage when one of the most well-funded political committees, Putting Alaskans First, is running attack ads in a local Assembly race? Worse, the committee is relying on Outside money for most of its campaign donations.
The race in question is for West Anchorage, an attempt to replace Austin Quinn-Davidson with someone more rational, in this case Brian Flynnrunning against Anna Brawley. Perennial candidate Dustin Darden also on the ballot. Quinn-Davidson decided not to run again.
Over the last couple weeks, the Putting Alaskans First Committee singled out Flynn in an attack ad running on local radio stations. The ad takes Flynn to task for not being sufficiently virulent in his opposition to Mayor Bronson, specifically going after Bronson for issuing sole source contracts. That charge is laughable, as unions have demanded for decades things called project labor agreements, which bind contractors to union-supplied labor. Apparently, Bronson is not giving the AFL/CIO exclusive contracts like the previous Democrat administrations (Quinn-Davidson and Berkowitz) did. And the union leadership doesn’t like that a lot.
This was the only substantive criticism of Flynn, and it is entirely mind reading, based on what they believe he will do if elected.
A closer look at Putting Alaskans First is instructive, starting with its location at 3333 Denali here in Anchorage. That is the same address as the AFL/CIO and IBEW are located. We saw with our discussion of Scott Kendall’s proximity to Lisa Murkowski’s Anchorage Office that location is just as important in the political wars as it is in real estate.
APOC carries both Kim Hayes and Joelle Hall on their documents. Both women are listed with AFL/CIO e-mail addresses. Note that Hall is listed as the contact for the Putting Alaskans First Committee while Hays is listed as the contact for the PAC.
The committee looks to be the centerpiece of AFL/CIO political spending here in Alaska over the last couple years, reporting nearly 40 contributions with $646,500 in 2022 alone. They reported three checks for $40,000 for 2023. Note that reporting to APOC is always behind what the actual money flow is doing.
The radio ad ends with the following disclaimer:
Paid for by the Putting Alaskans First Committee, 3333 Denali St. Ste. 125 Anchorage, AK 99503. I, Kim Hays, Chair approved this message. Top three contributors are UNITE AMERICA PAC of Denver, CO, LIUNA Political Fund of Washington, DC and NEA-Alaska PACE of Juneau, AK. This NOTICE TO VOTERS is required by Alaska law. I certify that this advertisement is not authorized, paid for, or approved by the candidate. A majority of contributions to Putting Alaskans First Committee came from outside the State of Alaska.
I highlighted the most important part of the disclaimer, their claim that the majority of funding for this campaign are from out of state. Why is Denver and Washington DC getting themselves involved in our local Assembly race?
Why, indeed? Two possibilities occur to me. The first is that Putting Alaskans First has money left over from the 2022 campaign season, and like a hammer looking for a nail to drive, protecting the Insane Clown Posse they helped install as the majority in the Anchorage Assembly is important, as they want to keep the good times rolling along. A second reason would be that the Insane Clown Posse routine played by the current majority no longer inspires the union membership to donate to elect people who consistently war against them, their jobs, property, schools and checkbooks, while funding the local Homeless Industrial Complex. If the second is true, even in part, we have a significant disconnect between union membership and its leadership.
Make no mistake, it was the unions that converted the Anchorage Assembly into the clown car we have all come to know and love. Like all good ringmasters, the leadership wants to keep the show going. Union leadership is very good at telling us what they don’t like, what scares them.
Apparently, Brian Flynn does, which is all we need to know to support him.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
The House of Representatives, on a nearly party line vote, failed to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a resolution that would have repealed the Labor Department rule allowing retirement plan managers to give preferential deference to environmental, social & corporate governance (ESG) factors in their investment decisions for retirees. A two-thirds vote from both bodies was needed to override the president’s veto. Alaska’s Rep. Mary Peltola voted with the Democrats and blocked the veto override.
Maine Rep. Jared Golden was the only Democrat to vote yes with all Republicans to override Biden’s first veto of his presidency. It doesn’t matter how the Senate votes; there are not enough votes to override the veto. It means retirement accounts may be managed for a Green New Deal agenda rather than for solely considering what is best for the account holder.
Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee said “I am disappointed the House didn’t vote tonight in favor of overturning the Biden administration’s veto of H.J. Res. 30. Inviting ESG considerations into retirement investing is a threat to the future security of retirees.”
The rule by the Biden Administration allows retirement fund managers to put their thumb on the scale in favor of funds that are considered more acceptable to progressives, without giving priority to their responsibility to the retiree to invest for the highest return and appropriate safeguards on risk. It may make companies behave more politically, too.
Before Biden, fund managers had a legal duty to the retirees, but this administration now gives them the option of investing as they see it may be best for the planet, according to ever-changing progressive goals.
Earlier this year, Peltola had voted for the “woke” investment rules, in line with the Democrats, when she voted against a Congressional Review Act disapproval of the Biden rule.
Craig Tornga has been named the new director for the Alaska Marine Highway System. His first day will be April 3.
Tornga has experience both in the marine industry and in managing multifaceted organizations. He started his maritime career sailing aboard Crowley’s ocean going vessels, and spent over 20 years working his way up through the Crowley’s Marine Services Division.
Tornga began his career with Crowley in 1977 as an ordinary seaman in Seattle. Over the years he held supervisory and managerial roles for the company in marine dispatch and customer service. In 1994, he was promoted to director of contract services, and in 1996 he was assigned to Anchorage, where he was general manager of oil industry services. He later went on to manage the company’s petroleum distribution, Valdez marine services, and North Slope energy support operations. In 2011, Tornga was tapped to lead Crowley’s new marine solutions group in Houston.
He was named vice president of stakeholder relations for Alaska and he relocated to Anchorage, where he report to Rocky Smith, senior vice president and general manager, petroleum distribution and marine services. Tornga is a past recipient of the Thomas Crowley Award, the company’s highest honor.
Since 2017, Tornga has served as the senior vice president for Kirby Offshore Marine in Houston, Texas.
“Craig is going to do a great job leading the AMHS team,” said DOT Commissioner Ryan Anderson. “His experience, first as a mariner, then in managing complex marine operations, will be invaluable to the Marine Highway operations and staff.”
“Mr. Tornga’s decades of experience and knowledge in the unique marine industry here in Alaska and Houston span every element needed for the successful management of a complex Alaskan owned and operated Marine Highway,” said Shirley Marquardt, Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board chair. “We have confidence that Craig will rise to the challenge and gain the support of our great employees who love the system.”
Per statute, DOT&PF conferred with AMHOB before offering Tornga the position. The board reviewed his credentials in executive session on March 13, and subsequently unanimously supported his candidacy at the public meeting on the same day.
The marine director position, formerly known as the AMHS general manager, has been vacant after the retirement of Captain John Falvey in January.
Although the Anchorage School Board is not set to vote until April 3 on the school superintendent’s recommendation to shut down Family Partnership Charter School, parents were given a three-day notice during a spring break weekend last week that their charter school was being set for closure by the new superintendent from Houston, Texas.
More than 60 parents showed up on short notice to tell the school board board not to kick their kids to the curb by destroying the program that provides customized education and some of the best learning environment in the Anchorage School District.
The board members listened but it wasn’t clear if they heard the parents. It was clear from the superintendent’s closing comments his mind was already made up.
The district notified Family Partnership last Friday at 4 pm that Bryantt planned to revoke the school’s charter and change it to a correspondence school. After the spring break weekend, the board heard parents’ testimony.
Family Partnership started 25 years ago, and is the largest school in the district, with more than 1,700 students.
The school educates its students for nearly $7,000 per student less than the school district’s other campuses.
Some testified that the district held multiple townhalls when it proposed to close six schools yet never held a townhall to allow the public to comment on the shutting down of Family Partnership.
A Family Partnership teacher stated that the principal had coordinated with the superintendent on the closure letter. Another parent said that the principal was notified of the closure four days before the parents were notified. The principal was not present at the meeting of the school board and parents.
Most parents spoke of the ability to customize their child’s education so their kids could actually learn and excel.
One parent said that her soft-spoken son was not doing well in the brick-and-mortar neighborhood schools. After he enrolled in the Family Partnership Charter School, his reading score went from 57% to 91% proficiency; his math scores went from 57% to 88% proficiency.
Another teacher with 23 years in the district who adopted a foster child said her child was failing in the neighborhood schools and other ASD special schools. After he enrolled in Family Partnership as a middle schooler, he excelled. He is now in high school and reads at the 98% proficiency level and is 95% proficient in math.
“This school is a great fit for this unique child,” she said.
Most parents wanted just to educate their children in the way they choose.
Karen Owens noted that Family Partnership has more than 450 students applying for only 100 openings in the lottery for next school year. “We are a shining star,” she said. Meanwhile, the Anchorage School District’s brick-and-mortar track record is failing, by most standards.
These parents see no other school district option for their children. Most parents testified that if Family Partnership loses its charter, they will remove their children from the district and enroll them in any other non-district program, including the IDEA state-wide correspondence program.
Another parent spoke to the superintendent’s focus on “inclusion.” She said, “Dr. Bryant, we are on the same page when it comes to inclusion. Our children have chosen Family Partnership Charter School as their mode of education. Taking away this charter will actually exclude these students from their choice of education.”
At the end of the parent testimony, Bryantt stated he heard what the parents said. He tried to persuade the parents that nothing will change.
Bryantt was concerned with “future breaches” either to the charter, the school bylaws, district policy, and state law. He focused on compliance rather than great education outcomes.
The school board seems to be in lockstep with the superintendent’s decision to revoke the charter, even though the district has many failing schools that do comply with the law and school board policy.
One parent asked the superintendent why many failing schools were not being closed even though they complied with district rules.
Bryantt said, “This change will not impact the teachers or students on the student funding allotments…or the freedom to make choices about their curriculum.”
But when the the school loses its charter and becomes a correspondence school under the thumb of the Anchorage School Board, it must align its curriculum to the district curriculum, per state law.
Bryantt said, “The student allotment will not decrease from what they are today and there are no plans to change that.”
But today’s student allotment of a minimum $4,200 may go down to the usual correspondence school allotment of $2,000. This will deny low-income parents the right to a better education for their kids.
Bryantt was more concerned with the dysfunctional Academic Policy Committee, the Family Partnership’s board, than with the outstanding educational outcomes of the students.
Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt’s letter is at this link.
Parents also voiced concern that the district had its eyes on the $4 million fund balance at the school. Bryantt said there were no plans to take that fund from the school. But many parents warned the district may take the school’s $4 million to fill other budgetary needs.
Bryantt offered no remedial plan of action to assist with getting the school into compliance. Instead, closing the doors to 1,700 achieving students seemed to be the only option he chose.
And many of these 1,700 students will, according to parents, be leaving the Anchorage School District for better education choices.
The rush toward a cashless society has hit the most basic of government transactions – entry fees into national parks.
On May 26, Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state will be the latest park to stop accepting cash at the entry booth.
Instead, visitors will be required to pay with credit or debit cards to enter what is a taxpayer-supported recreation area meant for hiking, biking, climbing, camping, exploring, and sightseeing. The park management has, in its wisdom, decided that it’s not worth it to collect actual money, a marked change in the relationship between the people and the agencies that oversee the land owned collectively by the people.
So far, resistance has been muted, with only a few, such as the ACLU, raising concerns about government barriers being raised against the poor.
Others worry about what may be seen as an invasion of privacy, or exposure to data breaches. There is also the question of whether this creates precedent for the federal government to coerce citizens to doing all transactions through government-regulated banks as a third party, raising the specter of social credit scores or tracking a person’s carbon footprint.
Most visitors to major national parks and monument lands have wallets full or plastic or, increasingly, a phone that they can tap for contactless payments.
But not everyone loves the idea of a bank getting up in their business. About 4% of Americans are “unbanked,” meaning they are part of a cash-and-carry world that most of us cannot imagine. They are the ones who are not able to meet bank balance requirements, can’t make their credit card payments, or who just don’t trust banks. Granted, they are not the prime marketing target for national parks, but creating yet another barrier seems unAmerican. This is government keeping what it considers undesirables out of parks by erecting a behavior barrier.
Reducing cash collection at entries to parks may allow resources to be diverted to other needs, perhaps cleaning latrines or reducing fraud, waste, and long lines at the booth. It also may keep out young people who don’t yet have credit cards, or those who have maxed out their cards but still want to get some fresh air. Opponents of this move say that an ongoing “war on cash” imperils privacy, limits access, and puts us all at the mercy of untold technical glitches, such as chips that malfunction, or a malware attack on a credit card processing entity. We’ve all had these experiences to greater or lesser degrees, even at a grocery store or gas pump.
At Cumberland Island, accessible only by ferry, the National Park website said the quiet part out loud: “Although there are multiple benefits for going cashless, our main priority is the safety of our visitors and staff.”
There you have it: Money is not safe, the government is saying, without exactly explaining why.
It’s reasonable to ask what will happen if other agencies decide legal tender is not safe. Will transit agencies stop taking coins and only accept “tap here” payment? This is not theoretical: In Seattle, the King County Metro Transit has been planning for three years to discontinue the acceptance of coins and bills by 2023.
The U.S. is not alone in this rush to a digital transaction mandate. Currency is quickly becoming obsolete in China, where hardly anyone carries Yuan notes. All Chinese transactions are traceable by the government. The same holds true for Indiaand its disappearing relationship with the rupee.
The federal government, which established the U.S. dollar with the Mint Act of 1792, should never require a bank account in order for a citizen to gain entry into a national park, historic site, or museum. Disallowing the dollar bill is not exactly like coming face-to-face with a grizzly bear, but it’s a short stroll to the next authoritarian thing — an America where every transaction is traceable by a federal bureaucrat and the idea that “leave no trace” does not include your wallet.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that the budget for the military needs to be prepared for a possible confrontation with China.
Austin was asking for the approval of the Defense Department’s $842 billion budget.
“This is a strategy-driven budget, and one driven by the seriousness of our strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China,” Austin said in his testimony. The budget has $9.1 billion to build up military capabilities in the Pacific, a 40% increase.
“This is a budget aimed squarely at keeping America secure in the world of the 21st century. At $842 billion, it’s a 3.2% increase over Fiscal Year 23 enacted and and it is 13.4% higher than Fiscal Year 22 enacted,” he said during Thursday morning’s testimony.
The People’s Republic of China is “our pacing challenge. And we’re driving hard to meet it. Our budget builds on our previous investments to deter aggression by increasing our edge,” Austin said.
“We’re investing in a more resilient force posture in the Indo-Pacific and increasing the scale and scope of our exercises with our partners. And this budget includes a 40% increase over last year’s for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative—it’s an all-time high of $9.1 billion. That will fund a stronger force posture, better defenses for Hawaii and Guam, and deeper cooperation with our allies and partners,” he said.
Austin also is requesting $61 billion to sustain air dominance, including funding for fighters and the new B-21 strategic bomber, unveiled in December.
He seeks $48 billion for sea power, including the construction of nine battle force ships.
“And we’re boosting capacity at America’s shipyards to build the ships that our strategy demands. We’re investing a total of $1.2 billion in the submarine industrial base. And we’re buying two Virginia-class attack submarines and one Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine,” Austin said.
He described investments to counter drones and the Pentagon’s investing in hypersonics and space.
“We’ve put forward the largest space budget in Pentagon history. We’ve requested $33.3 billion to improve our capabilities, our resilience, and our command and control in space,” he said.
“This budget also moves us away from aging capabilities that aren’t relevant to future conflicts so we can focus on the advances that warfighters will need going forward,” Austin said.
Austin called out Russia President Vladimir Putin and said that Russia continues to be an “acute threat,” and that the U.S. will support the defense of Ukraine “for as long as it takes.” He also mentioned other persistent threats, such as Iran, North Korea, and global terrorist groups.
The Anchorage Assembly met March 22 and approved a surprise resolution by 9-2 to authorize the assembly’s lawyer to pursue legal actions, including an injunction, against the mayor of Anchorage to halt what it considers an unauthorized payment to Roger Hickel Construction, Inc. for construction work at the Navigation Center site at Tudor and Elmore.
The work was done per contract but the Assembly has no intention of paying for it, saying the work was not authorized by the Assembly.
On Feb. 24, the Bronson Administration issued a memorandum to the Assembly saying the city plans to settle the invoice from Roger Hickel Contracting, Inc. in the amount of $2.455 million by March 24.
Assembly leadership issued a response immediately upon receipt of the memorandum, reminding the Administration of AO 2022-105, adopted two months earlier, which requires Assembly approval to authorize payments for, “supplies, services, professional services or construction… provided to or performed for the Municipality without an Assembly approval required by Anchorage Municipal Code section 7.15.040.”
The Alaska House of Representatives appropriated more than $6 million in funding to assist Alaskan families who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to meet feed their families. Some 82,000 Alaskans used SNAP benefits.
The legislation, House Bill 79, was introduced by the House Rules Committee upon the request of the governor and passed in a vote of 38 to 1.
The SNAP food stamp program has had with a backlog of unprocessed applications for months due to staffing issues and other factors. This has left many Alaskans in desperate situations, without basic food supplies. The passage of this bill is a critical step in bringing relief to these Alaskan families and individuals.
“The situation for many was desperate and we needed to act as fast as was prudently possible,” said Rep. Mike Prax of North Pole and chair of House Health and Social Services. “While I’d like to see a more long-term and sustainable solution, the time to debate that is later, but the bottom line is that some Alaskans were literally suffering from malnutrition and that had to be addressed now.”
“With over 82 thousand beneficiaries, SNAP provides a critical safety net to Alaskans, especially those in rural communities,” said Bryce Edgmon of Dillingham, House Finance co-chair. “It is unfortunate that it took this long to address the backlog, but I’m glad the House was able to fast-track this funding.”
“Many Alaskans, particularly those in rural and remote areas depend on SNAP to supplement their food supply. When these services are not available many of these Alaskans, particularly children and the elderly, go without basic food staples. It was critical that we pass this measure to ensure the food security of Alaskans,” said Rep. Neal Foster of Nome, co-chair of Finance.
“I am pleased that the House took swift action on the floor to address the backlog of SNAP benefits and the needs of hungry Alaskans. I’d like to thank the Governor, members of the House Finance Committee, and all my colleagues for their efficient work on this bill,” said Rep. DeLena Johnson of Palmer and co-chair of Finance.
