The state secretly ordered the contractor—after its report was finished last summer—to revise the work it had done and set salaries at the 50 percentile for many employees. Lowering the benchmark would lower the cost and widen the gap between state workers and other employees..
This deception, for that is what it is, goes against the letter and spirit of the state law requiring government transparency.
Rep. Nick Begich the Third didn’t tell Alaskans the full story when he praised himself for getting the House of Representatives to pass two bills on February 4.
The Begich bills were copied word for word from bills introduced by former Rep. Mary Peltola.
The hearings on both took place in November, before Begich took office, and they won unanimous backing from the Republican-controlled resources committee.
Read MoreIt is a safe bet that the contractor discovered that the state is not paying enough to remain competitive, which is the real reason why Dunleavy is sitting on the study.
Had the contractor’s research shown that state pay rates are more than competitive, copies of the state salary study would have been in every mailbox of every politician in Alaska last summer.
Read MoreThe Anchorage Daily News had the best coverage about Trump’s emissions about the Alaska gas pipeline. Read it here.
Elsewhere the news was not so good.
“President Donald Trump today announced a joint venture with Japan for the Alaska LNG project,” Alaska Public Media reported.
There are no signed documents about a joint venture. That’s because there is no joint venture.
This truth was completely missing from the Alaska news coverage.
Read MoreA new video from a campaign group that appears to be aimed at elevating Gov. Mike Dunleavy on the national scene claims that the Dunleavy policies that have worked so well in Alaska should be exported to 49 other states.
Dunleay allies, including Alaska Airlines pilot Bob Griffin, have created the new Dunleavy support group, called “Future 49,” in which Dunleavy and Trump are the lead characters.
“Alaska’s Golden Age is here,” the support group says, thanks in large part to Trump and Dunleavy.
Read MoreThe Dunleavy administration continues to claim that drafts of the $880,000 state salary study are secret, which contradicts a state law that says draft reports are public documents.
But a more egregious action took place last week when the Dunleavy administration refused to tell legislators and the public what data it asked the salary study contractor to provide last summer.
The state redacted a key phrase from an $80,000 contract amendment that conceals a major change in state policy, setting a lower target for state pay rates.
Read MoreI expect the meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and President Donald Trump Friday will be followed by noise from the White House about Japan backing an Alaska natural gas pipeline.
Trump will declare victory and strut upon the stage, praising himself, but as Macbeth moaned about the course of all life, look for a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Read MoreElon Musk, who bought the presidency and the Republican Party for $290 million, claims he has shut down a U.S. agency that bankrolls the International Republican Institute, a organization head by Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Sullivan is the chairman of the International Republican Institute, which is supposed to advance democracy worldwide.
The institute’s grants include tens of millions from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Sullivan is silent about the Musk attack.
Read MoreThe headline above says it all.
So why have Alaska’s Republican leaders had their mouths sealed about the dumbest trade war in history?
Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Rep. Nick Begich the Third should have condemned the dumbest trade war the moment it was announced.
Instead, they hide, probably secretly sending thoughts and prayers that no one will notice.
The Legislature needs to fill this leadership vacuum by declaring that Canada is Alaska’s closest and best neighbor and we have a relationship that will be damaged by Trump’s antics.
Read MoreThere’s an easy way to get higher fourth-grade scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress standardized test, the one that Gov. Mike Dunleavy is using as a public relations weapon to brand public education in Alaska as a failed system.
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