Rep. Don Young has never been Alaska’s arch conservative, tea party favorite. He’s too supportive of labor, too supportive of congressional leadership, and despite what some in Alaska might think of him, he doesn’t play the fire-breathing Republican game very well. And his vote for the recent spending bill—despite all the goodies for Alaska in it–has again, and already, set him up as a target amongst some right-leaning Alaskans.

The $1 trillion-plus funding bill was passed late Thursday. It didn’t strip funding for Homeland Security, nor for ObamaCare, as some on the right had called for. However, it avoided a government shutdown, and did cut agency funding some, but not enough for fiscal hawks.

In a release defending his vote, Young said that he didn’t approve of such large spending bills, as opposed to individual appropriations. But it was the only choice Congress had given Democratic control of the Senate. Too, he said, the bill “takes a number of serious steps to stand up for fiscal responsibility, reduce the size of the federal government, defend the homeland and protect our men and women in uniform, and target much needed reforms for growing federal agencies like the EPA and IRS,” (See Young’s full press release below, along with details of funding for various programs in the bill.)

Mike Coons, the former head of the Conservative Patriots Group, Continue reading →

• The Dispatch reports that Gov. Bill Walker says he will keep his campaign promise by asking departments to cut 5 percent from their budgets.

• Does the Kodiak Launch Complex have any intention of going away? Nope.  It wants to get bigger. The AP is reporting that the Alaska Aerospace Corp. is expected to announce expansion plans. Do those plans include asking the state for the $100 or so million it said it would need in 2012 for such an expansion?

• Up in Fairbanks, Matt Buxton was on hand to cover the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly where two issues that seem to contradict themselves passed. First, they endorsed the state air pollution measure that will tighten air pollution regulations and then they voted for permanent registration for older vehicles and trailers.

• The New York Times reports that the House passed the $1.1 trillion spending bill yesterday and has been moved to the Senate where it is scheduled to be voted on today so the country doesn’t face another shut-down. The vote was tight due mostly to considerable bipartisan anger over a provision to roll back financial regulations on Big Banks.

• OPEC is dead, so sayeth the Telegraph.

• Begich’s complete farewell speech, uninterrupted.

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Alaska memories are short. So for those who weren’t around, let me tell you all about the love caucus. Actually, scratch. That would take too long. This is what you need to know: it involved soon-to-be House Majority Leader Charisse Millett, and then Rep. Kyle Johansen, both of whom fell on their swivel sticks for love and got kicked out of the majority. Was the VP commiserating this week? Was Millett recruiting? Where’d she get that necklace? Was Biden a good Eskimo kisser? Maybe we can all ask her when she gets back from one of several of her recent junkets.

As I mentioned in my last column, that junket is in D.C., where a group of legislators and staffers are visiting for the National Council of State Legislators forum. Registration fees are between $425 and $500 per person and that doesn’t include airfare, hotel or meals. That junket followed another junket in Alabama. Outgoing Rep. Eric Feige, who was beat in the primary, hopped on that one, because what’s another free trip among friends? Maybe someone in power, like, I don’t know, a governor, should call for an end to all non-essential travel. And maybe for morale, mandate Eskimo kissing for those in opposite parties while he’s at it.

The governor isn’t traveling far for a dinner with Hollywood. Continue reading →

A few years ago, I did some preliminary reporting on how much the state actually makes in taxes from the commercial fishing industry, minus state-funded management of, and state-funded infrastructure for, the industry. What I began to suspect: When we’re just talking about pure state-coffer cash, it appears that we’re actually losing money on the multi-billion dollar commercial fishing industry, touted as the second-largest industry in Alaska. An important caveat: this does not include money that gets funneled through the state from industry-wages—though the value of those wages are less specific because we don’t have a broad-based income or sales tax. Nor does it include money localities get from fees and taxes on the industry, which might otherwise come out of general-fund revenue.

I was reminded again about that story when I looked at the DOR’s report on revenue released yesterday and read that the state actually brings in more money from taxes on tobacco than it does from taxes on fisheries, and mining, for that matter. In FY 2015, the state is projected to bring in only $26.7 million from fisheries, and only $24.7 million in FY 2016.

A commenter, who appears to know what he/she is talking about, says that when the numbers are crunched, the state actually subsidized the commercial fishing industry by as much as $60 million a year. Read on:

Alaska continues to subsidize commercial fisheries management to the tune of $60 million plus.

Fisheries taxes, business and landing, is about $25 – $30 million, but that revenue is roughly one third the cost of commercial fisheries management, not including state infrastructure for ports, hatcheries, remote airports that service primarily commercial fisheries…

Fish are a public resource to be used for the maximum benefit of the people of the state.

Commercial fisheries utilized 98.2 percent of all fish and game harvest in Alaska in 2012, or 3,240 million pounds. Continue reading →

• Alaska Supreme Court Judge has ruled that the Anchorage anti-panhandling law proposed by Mayor Dan Sullivan and passed by the Anchorage Assembly violated free speech laws. But the court upheld another law that made sitting on municipality sidewalks illegal, according to the Alaska Commons.

• Alaska’s 3.5 billion deficits due to lower oil prices are making the news. The Juneau Empire has the gory details, but so too does ABC News, KTVA, Alaska Journal, and APRN.

• Did you know that Alaska takes in more from tobacco taxes than from fishing and mining taxes? More in The bad, the good, and the interesting in DOR’s Revenue Sources Book.

• Alaska Education Update reports that Gov. Bill Walker might keep Department of Education & Early Development’s commissioners Mike Hanley and Department of Environmental Conservation’s Larry Hartig.

• The Dispatch believes that the next big issue on Gov. Bill Walker’s plate will be dealing with the state’s retirement fund problem.

• The Wall Street Journal reports on how the slumping prices of natural gas could affect LNG gas-export terminals from Australia to Canada. The break-even number for Australia projects is $12-to-$14 per million British thermal units. LNG prices in Asia have sunk below $10 per million British thermal units.

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Yesterday, as part of the U.S. Coast Guard Act, Congress voted to extend a moratorium that was set to expire in a week that exempts small commercial fishing vessels from needing incidental discharge permits. Without that exemption, small commercial fishermen need permits, or fear being fined by the EPA for hosing fish guts off their decks. Murkowski is pushing to make the exemption permanent. Here she is on the Senate floor, talking fish guts:

Here’s some bad, some good and some interesting news gleaned from the Revenue Sources Book Fall 2014, which the Department of Revenue released today.

Here’s some of the bad:

In FY 2014, the State received $5.4 billion in revenue from unrestricted sources, $4.8 billion of which came from petroleum related activities. For FY 2015, the department is forecasting a significant decrease in unrestricted general fund revenue to $2.6 billion.

Here’s a chart which brings it home:

Brad Keithley, as he’s wont to do, has his way with the numbers:

FY 2014 deficit: $1.8 billion (budget 25% financed from savings); projected FY 2015 deficit: $3.7 billion (budget 60% financed from savings); projected FY 2016 deficit under Parnell “work in progress budget”: $3.3 billion (budget 60% financed from savings). Savings remaining at the end of FY 2016 under the Parnell “work in progress budget”: ~$6.5 billion

More bad: Continue reading →

Incoming House Finance Committee Co-Chairs Reps. Mark Neuman and Steve Thompson met with Gov. Bill Walker and his Chief of Staff Jim Whittaker, and later with Office of Management & Budget Director Pat Pitney, in Juneau on Wednesday. According to a release, the meeting centered on starting a dialogue on the FY16 budgets. The two said that they look forward to a “collaborative effort with the new administration.”

Neuman and Thompson also finalized the chairs for the House Finance Budget Subcommittees. Here’s the list:

• Rep. Mark Neuman (Mat-Su) — Fish & Game, Governor and Legislature
• Rep. Steve Thompson (Fairbanks) — Military & Veterans Affairs, Transportation & Public Facilities and Revenue
• Rep. Bryce Edgmon (Dillingham) — Corrections and Public Safety
• Rep. Lynn Gattis (Wasilla) — Administration and Education
• Rep. Cathy Munoz (Juneau) — Court System and Environmental Conservation
• Rep. Lance Pruitt (Anchorage)–Commerce, Community & Economic Development and Natural Resources
• Rep. Dan Saddler (Anchorage/Eagle River) — Health & Social Services and Law
• Rep. Tammie Wilson (Fairbanks/North Pole) — Labor & Workforce Development and the University

Here’s U.S. Sen. Mark Begich’s response to the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s  majority report on CIA detention and interrogation following 9/11. Begich is so far the only member of the delegation to respond to what is being  called the “Torture Report.“

The CIA’s troubling use of torture, which this report details, was a significant failure and it deserves our attention. The release of this report is an important step in setting the record straight so we can prevent similar techniques from happening again. Congress needs to continue to bolster oversight over our intelligence gathering agencies. As we look to the future, we must remember who we are, uphold our moral values and take a smarter approach to our national security.

• The fallout of the Torture Report was as expected. People were disgusted, political pundits fell into rank and file, and John Stewart from the Daily Show utilized Monty Python to great affect. The most damning reaction and one with the biggest potential impact comes from the U.N.’s special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights. Ben Emmerson told the Huffington Post that senior U.S. officials who authorized and carried out torture must be prosecuted.

• The New York Times has put together a useful timeline of events mentioned in the Torture Report.

•  Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s lands package deal was a massive undertaking and APRN has the behind closed doors story of how it came to fruition.

• Remember when the pro-pot people were calling potential hash-oil explosions fear-mongering used by the antis? The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner has the details of the house that went up in flames yesterday.

• Comparatively speaking, Anchorage has been pretty soft on Uber, the technology company that acts like a taxi cab company with an app. San Francisco is the latest city to take them on. It’s a good thing they hired Obama’s wunderkid David Plouffe to help them with PR.  He seems to know so much about local government.

• Alaska Education Update has the details on former Gov. Sean Parnell’s FY16 DEED operating budget that is being used as a placeholder until Gov. Walker’s bill is introduced.

• KTUU has the latest on the U.S. Senate’s move to repeal Alaska’s exemption from the Violence Against Women Act.

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Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan is requesting $350 million from the state for the troubled Port of Anchorage. The port appropriation request is by far the largest chunk of the roughly $670 million the municipality is requesting in the upcoming state budget. The requests were presented to Anchorage legislators on Tuesday afternoon. Sullivan’s priorities, including the port, total about $389 million.

According to the narrative attached to the request for the port, “The Municipality now exercises complete control over the Project and determines how state and local funds are utilized. As of August 2014, the Municipality has shifted the goal of the project from what was an ‘expansion’ to a modernization initiative.”

“Modernization” is one way to put it. Anchorage  has been trying to expand the troubled port for more than a decade. Because of a failed design, and flawed federal oversight, about $300 million has been spent on the project and it still hasn’t been expanded. The municipality did get new roads, utilities, and land for that money. And it got a lot of fingers pointing at each other. The mess is now in court.

In any case, Anchorage isn’t likely to get nearly that much money. Oil sunk to about $65 a barrel on Tuesday, which means that the state is facing huge budget deficits. Former Gov. Sean Parnell’s budget, which is sort of being used as a blueprint by the new administration, has budgeted about $219 million in capital projects.

Among other Sullivan priorities: Continue reading →

Reader Ah Ha, who, judging by his/her past  comments, is no raging lefty, comments on the torture report and about other commenters who urge those reading it to put it into historical context:

I believe I am keeping in mind the ‘historical context’ when I recall that our country was founded by by men of the certain belief that there were some things that an honorable person should not stoop to. It’s historically been one of the hallmarks of our country and used to be a hallmark of democracy.

I am a American. In the past I answered my country’s call to arms and did so with a sense of honor and pride knowing that my country valued above all things the certitude of being morally correct and honorable.

What has been revealed today is nothing less than a terrible stain upon the honor and dignity of our country and no right thinking person should either condone or defend it.

Today, I am ashamed for my country.

The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday issued a 600-page executive summary of its long-awaited 6,000-page report on torture used between by the Central Intelligence Agency in the years following the 9/11 attacks. The intro to the executive summary was written by the committee’s chair Sen. Diane Feinstein and signed by seven other Democrats who sit on the committee. There are still thousands of pages that the White House refuses to release to the Committee.

In the summary, Feinstein warns readers to put things in historical context. “I can understand the CIA’s impulse to consider the use of every possible tool to gather intelligence and remove terrorists from the battlefield, and CIA was encouraged by political leaders and the public to do whatever it could to prevent another attack,” Feinstein wrote. However, she said that such pressure and fear does not “excuse improper actions.”

Improper actions is one way to put it. Another way: Revolting and immoral.

A handful of Republican senators and members of the intelligence community lambasted the release of the report. Sen. John McCain broke ranks and thanked the Senate Democrats for releasing it. “The truth is sometimes a hard pill to swallow,” he said. “But the American people are entitled to it nonetheless.”

So far, our own congressional delegation has been silent, including GOP Sen.-elect Dan Sullivan, who worked for the White House and the State Department under Condoleezza Rice when the torture transpired, though it’s unclear what Rice or President George W. Bush knew about the extent of the torture. Sullivan was also an active Marine between 2004-2006, where he was stationed in the Middle East. I’ve asked his spokesman to what extent, if any. Sullivan knew about the program.  I’ll post when I hear back.

Here are some excerpts from the summary and some reactions. Warning: Some of it is deeply disturbing:

The narrative of modern American history will be shaped by the documentation provided in CIA report. It is that big. http://t.co/IX5BcC6lGh

— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) December 9, 2014

Continue reading →

• The Bush-era torture tactics have been released in the Torture Report. Reactions on the hill have been dramatic because the report is really bad. Angus King (I-ME) told CNN’s New Day that the practices used were what we tried Japanese soldiers for war crimes after WWII. Some in the international community are calling for perpetrators to be punished. The ACLU wants Pres. Obama to grant all those involved a pardon.

• Noble Drilling, a contractor of Shell Oil, has been found guilty of environmental and maritime crimes and has been ordered to pay $12.2 million in fines and community service for activities during the winter of 2012. The Fairbanks News Miner has all of the juicy details.

• Obama’s stance on torture has always been clear. Not so clear is his stance on exposing U.S. involvement in torture.

• The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reports that Jane Soeten of Wasilla and Jean White of Anchorage will be receiving bronze medals in recognition of their service to our country  during WWII at a ceremony in Washington D.C.

Continue reading →

The Dispatch’s Laurel Andrews wrote about what has been on the top of the minds of people who think about such things: Is it possible for Gov. Bill Walker to fulfill his campaign promise to immediately expand Medicaid given the numerous problems with the state’s Medicaid billing system? Taking the issue further, can Walker expand Medicaid-which would most immediately affect about 40,000 Alaskans–without legislative approval, and if he tries, what kind of repercussions might that have?

The answer to the first is no, according to Val Davidson, the new commissioner of the Department of Health and Social Services. According to the Dispatch article, the Medicaid billing system needs to be fixed lest the implementation of expansion be “sloppy.”

That’s likely to take a long time. Xerox has been working on upgrading the 25-year-old system since 2007. With Xerox’s assurances, the payment system went live in October 2013, and immediately problems ensued as a result of the 546 defects. In September, there were still 460 defects. Commissioner Davidson told the Dispatch that currently, there are 324 defects. All of which means that each month, tens of thousands of claims still aren’t being processed, and providers aren’t getting paid appropriately.  Continue reading →