Going past the regularly scheduled 90-day legislative session and into the 92nd legislative day, lawmakers continue to be far apart on the specifics of the governor’s education bill, forcing a conference committee to work out the differences between the House and Senate.
The House conferees are Reps. Mike Hawker, Lynn Gattis, and Sam Kito III. The senators are Mike Dunleavy, Kevin Meyer, and Lyman Hoffman. They have been given limited power of free conference. In other words, they are being given more flexibility than is normally granted to a first-time appointed conference committee. They are scheduled to meet Tuesday at 10 a.m.
The capital appropriations bill is being held on the House floor pending an agreement on the education bill so that the fiscal costs of what is agreed upon can be provided for in the appropriations bill. The only other high profile issue remaining is a concurrence vote in the House on KABATA.
Legislators are said to be optimistic that they can expect to wind up their work on Tuesday.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
As a teacher, I have closely followed the education bill this year in the legislature. Much to my surprise and bewilderment, Mike Hawker is the chair of the conference committee? I don’t think he even set on a single committee where the bill was hearrd. This is the same guy who screwed up the Anchorage Legislative Building. Why would you let someone who $ade such a mess of that in chargge of education when he has shown little interest or involvement in the issue? One of my colleagues told me it was politics and the republicans were hoping thiis would give him some posiitive exposure for his election and offset the Anchorage LIO issue. Time to quit playing politics and focus on the kids. I am voiting AGAINST all rrepublicans.
has there ever been a less relevant minority leader than mr. tuck? he’s failed to alter the course of a single majority initiative and barely rates mention in legislative news. all that’s left to talk about is his dating habits, and nobody really cares about that either.
Watching our legislature in action has to make you want to increase schoool funding.
I agree we need to increase direct citizen funding if they won’t reduce spending. I asked my state senator (Fairclough) to consider doubling the gasoline tax to 16 cents per gallon. This tax hasn’t been increased since the early 1960’s. She told me popular sentiment as expressed in legislative polls would make that an impossible option. So there you
Here is a novel idea: how about Alaskans start contributing and pay for the services they receive from state government? Or perhaps we shouldn’t rely on one revenue stream to fund 90 percent of state government? The state needs to stop spending money on dumb projects (ASAP, Kabata, etc.), it needs to curb health care costs by pooling all public sector workers, it needs to focus on attracting investment from the private sector to diversify the economy, and it needs to find more revenue sources.
Professor Emeritus Scott Goldsmith of the UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) is a respected authority on Alaska fiscal matters. In March he testified as a private citizen before Senate Finance. He stated at that time the State of Alaska is currently spending its’ cash reserves at about 7 million dollars per day.
Many of the legislators, mostly the self described “fiscal conservatives” now seeking re-election, dismissed that projection as simply a short term problem that soon will be overcome by more oil production and the promise of the AKLNG gas line that could bring us 4 billion dollars a year.
Oil and Gas are non-renewable resources that cannot be counted upon as permanent revenue streams. If you directly spend the revenue from a non-renewable resource you are, in effect, eating your seed corn. By now we should only be spending the income derived from our oil income and other revenues not directly realized from non-renewable resource extraction. Unfortunately now the revenue from Permanent Fund investment is not enough to pay for Alaska State government. We are in a serious downward spiral.
Consider that if we do realize that 4 billion dollar maximum benefit from the AKLNG project, That would amount to revenue of just under 11 million dollars per day ($4 billion divided by 365 days = $10,958,904/day). That revenue stream from gas, just like from oil, will eventually end. How long will it last if our politicians spend it directly? Our children will then themselves in another period of daily deficit spending just like we are today. If we don’t change our behavior eventually we will have spent the oil money, we will have spent the gas money, and future Alaskans will have very few options. Should we care?
The many accounts of the final days of the legislature should cause the public pause and concern. Legislators were tired and dulled by the long legislative days. Many of the denate points on Gavel to Gavel suggested ignorance or indifference. There has to be a better way to make laws.