Ranting and raving at another unhinged press conference, Gov. Mike Dunleavy aired his usual grievances about legislators, school board members, PTAs, superintendents and teachers who supported the education bill he vetoed.
Every legislator except for Reps. Mike Prax and David Eastman and Sen. Shelley Hughes supported the bill. Legislators will consider an override Monday. At least some of the Dunleavy Republicans in the House will go along with the veto.
Read MoreWith no public notice and little discussion, Republican legislators who identify themselves as conservatives slipped $300 million in borrowing authority for AIDEA and $58 million in borrowing authority for the Alaska Railroad into a bill.
The $358 million in borrowing authority was added to a bill that would also allow the railroad to borrow $90 million more to rebuild the Seward passenger dock and terminal. It is House Bill 122.
Read MoreRegarding the Cook Inlet natural gas situation, they suggest that conserving natural gas with more efficient use of natural gas would be simple and effective and they provide this clear-headed statement about the way forward:
Read MoreThere are assumptions piled on assumptions and monumental subsidies in a so-called University of Alaska Fairbanks study proposing a coal-fired power plant in Southcentral Alaska to replace natural gas.
I say so-called because on page 2 of the report, it says the document was prepared by the Energy & Environmental Research Center of the University of North Dakota. It says that “economic results were developed by UAF with guidance from EERC,” the research center of the University of North Dakota.
Read MoreArmed with the David Eastman playbook, right-wing Reps. Jamie Allard and Sarah Vance attacked two people who have served the state well for decades—ethics committee volunteers Joyce Anderson and Dennis “Skip” Cook.
Anderson and Cook deserve an apology for the confirmation hearing, in which Allard and Vance, acting as if they were auditioning for “Law & Order,” embarrassed the Alaska Legislature.
Read MoreThe new Anchorage office of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, located just across from the Memorial Park Cemetery on Cordova Street, should be shut down to save about $170,000, according to draft budget language moving through the Legislature.
The proposed intent language from lawmakers is aimed directly at the trustees of the fund:
“It is the intent of the Legislature that the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation will not establish or maintain new office locations without corresponding budget increments for that purpose. It is further the intent of the Legislature that the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation shall provide a report to the finance committee co-chairs and the Legislative Finance Division by December 2024 that details any actual expenditures to date related to the Anchorage office.”
Read MoreIn his latest harangue calling for the U.S. to use more military force directly against Iran, Sen. Dan Sullivan quoted a Tom Friedman column from January 25 about how Iran is not paying a price for the actions of its proxies.
Friedman, a New York Times columnist, has an excellent grasp of the complexity and the danger in that part of the world.
His columns reflect these qualities and do not promise the simple military solutions that Sullivan invariably calls for.
Read MoreHe should be in Juneau working with the Legislature. Working on education, the future of energy supplies in Southcentral, the cost of electricity in Fairbanks and elsewhere, a short-term fiscal plan that does not mean creating a $1 billion deficit and a long-term fiscal plan that does not mean the end of the Permanent Fund and the end of the Permanent Fund Dividend.
Read MoreThe cover letter by Commissioner Ryan Anderson attached as part of the so-called “STIP narrative” asserts that this is a “transparent resource for the public” and provides a “clear overview of planned projects.”
Sorry, it’s not that at all. Alaskans need a simple explanation of what has changed and what went wrong.
Read MoreJohn Skidmore, deputy attorney general in the criminal division, gave legislators what sounded like a reasoned argument to add $502,000 a year to the state budget to pay for investigative grand juries.
But Skidmore was not telling the full story. He didn’t mention the thirst for vigilante justice and mob rule.
The mess created by Attorney General Tregarrick Taylor, Skidmore’s boss, with the runaway David Haeg grand jury is the best argument to kill this budget request.
Read More
