The special election Tuesday in Fairbanks is about saving our schools, the quality of which has everything to do with what kind of future Fairbanks will enjoy or endure.
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The House Finance Committee stripped the $300 million blank check from a bond bill Friday for the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.
The change, if it survives the rest of the legislative process, means AIDEA would have to come back at a future date with a specific plan on how it would like to use the $300 million.
The decision is a step toward establishing checks and balances with the state-owned development bank, which is controlled by the governor.
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The haphazard handling of the Dunleavy administration response to the landmark court ruling on correspondence schools continued Friday with Gov. Mike Dunleavy reversing the position he had taken two days earlier.
“This is literally a disaster, potentially, an emergency because of its magnitude,” he told reporters Wednesday.
It is not literally a disaster. And it is not an emergency. It is a problem that can be solved. It’s hard to do that, however, when the governor and his attorney general are more interested in creating hysteria and getting people angry than in solving the problem.
Read MoreRadio talk show host and adman Mike Porcaro led the “red pen” campaign in 2019 to harass legislators who balked at Dunleavy’s plan for $1.6 billion in budget cuts that would slash every state and local government service.
Porcaro claimed the government could be smaller, with no income tax and no reduction in Permanent Fund Dividends. That was a complete fantasy, of course.
He now says it was just show business.
Read MoreThe Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority has refused to explain how it came up with the $300 million bond plan under review by the Legislature.
It has also refused to explain how it came up with another amendment—one that has yet to be officially added to a bill—that would also allow the corporation to borrow $100 million without bothering with legislative approval, up from the current $25 million.
Read MoreIn his confirmation hearing before the Senate Education Committee Monday, Bob Griffin recycled the misleading conclusions he draws about the quality of education in Alasksa based on the percentage of Alaska students who earn a score of 3 or higher on an Advanced Placement test compared to Florida.
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Matt Glover, 48, traveled more than 5,000 miles a year by bicycle, rising every morning at 4 a.m. and commuting winter and summer from North Pole to Fairbanks along the shoulder of the Richardson Highway. He worked as a locomotive engineer for the Alaska Railroad.
“He was very conscientious of being visible on his bike with reflective clothing and lights,” Arleen Glover, his mother, wrote to Alaska legislators. “But with all that, he wasn’t safe.”
Read MoreThe Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority wants approval to borrow $300 million without telling the Legislature or the public where the money would go. Trust us, says AIDEA.
The agency, run by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s former chief of staff, Randy Ruaro, and a board comprised of Dunleavy employees and political supporters, is telling the Legislature to approve the $300 million and stop worrying. AIDEA will pick the right projects, AIDEA says.
Read MoreThe Alaska Permanent Fund is facing the most serious leadership crisis in its history, triggered by the behavior of trustee Gabrielle Rubenstein.
The chief investment officer of the fund, Marcus Frampton, took the extraordinary step in January to privately document what he believes are the serious conflicts of interest that Rubenstein has brought to the operation of the fund.
Read MoreBob Griffin, the Dunleavy point man on the state school board, has his Senate confirmation hearing Monday at 3:30 p.m. before the Senate Education Committee.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy nominated Griffin for a second five-year term on the state board. Griffin works as a pilot for Alaska Airlines and his volunteer job is as “senior education research fellow” for the right-wing Alaska Policy Forum, which propagates many of the same ideas as Dunleavy.
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