The Dunleavy administration has in the past declared its support for two of the key provisions in the oil tax bill introduced by Anchorage Sen. Bill Wielechowski.
Not once, but twice.
Holding Dunleavy to this pledge should simplify the politics of the matter somewhat for the modest changes offered by Wielechowski.
Read MoreAn industry group called “Alaska Resource Education,” has long been creating materials for Alaska schools to promote the virtues of oil and gas, mining and forestry development.
The materials on its website have value, but the organization doesn’t always reveal that there are valid opinions among Alaskans other than those dear to the hearts of the Resource Development Council and Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Read MoreThe vast 4,700-box collection of Stevens papers should have remained in Fairbanks at the largest and finest research library in the state, but the heirs of Stevens decided to move the papers to Anchorage in 2015 for reasons they never explained.
If a first-rate biography of Stevens is ever to be written, the author will have to rely on this vast collection and have full access to tell the man’s story—his triumphs as well as his failures.
Read MoreClosing the glaring Hilcorp loophole, which could be costing the state $100 million a year, is long overdue.
SB 114, introduced by the Senate Rules Committee Friday, would do that, among other things.
Read MoreAt 1:58 p.m. on Monday, March 13, the Dunleavy administration posted a public notice online that the state salary commission would meet two days later in the Atwood Building.
The meeting was illegal. It should never have been scheduled or held. The law requires 20-day notice. And only one of the five commissioners who got the notice would still be on the body by the day of the meeting.
Read MoreIf you haven’t done so already, please listen to the March 15 meeting of the new Alaska State Officers Compensation Commission, the meeting that followed the coup engineered by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. It won’t take long. The corrupt process employed by Dunleavy and some legislators to rig the salary commission results is a disgrace.
Read MoreSen. Gary Stevens is getting close to the end of a distinguished legislative career, perhaps with this term, and he shouldn’t sign off on the salary subterfuge engineered by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Stevens should realize that denying a legislative vote on whether lawmakers and top officials in the executive branch should get raises is unethical.
Refusing to hold a legislative vote will make Stevens a partner with Dunleavy in subverting the public process.
Read MoreTregarrick Taylor, the third attorney general under Gov. Mike Dunleavy, disputes the notion that anything he does from his state perch is motivated by personal opinion or interpretation.
“I don’t get to provide advice based on what the law could or should be; my duty is to provide advice based on what the law is,” Taylor proclaims in a stuffed-shirt document published in the Anchorage Daily News and elsewhere.
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Imagine if a fast-talking salesman tried to pay a multi-million-dollar debt by offering to unload property he didn’t want anymore and claiming the asset is worth $13.9 million.
A shell game like that wouldn’t go far before the other party would demand that the salesman produce the cash.
But the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is trying to pull a similar scam right now with its attempt to transfer a North Slope road instead of handing over $13.9 million in cash.
Read MoreThe Alaska Salary Commission coup, engineered by Gov, Mike Dunleavy and legislative leaders, is a prime example of political cowardice.
The brand new members of the commission met for the first time this week and unanimously approved a pay raise for the governor and his top appointees and legislators without any work.
The pay raises will automatically take effect unless the Alaska Legislature rejects the plan, which was obviously worked out in advance in secret.
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