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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Will Dunleavy's freeze on new regulations affect paid sick leave for Alaskans?
The Alaska and American flags fly in front of the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) Two weeks ago, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced a hiring freeze for most state agencies, paused new state regulations, and restricted state workers' travel. The governor's administrative order arrived amid growing concerns about state spending, and much of it is similar to orders issued during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency and the oil price shock of the mid-2010s. But this order has a new wrinkle: a pause on new state regulations. 'In order for agencies to focus their attention on the State's core mission of providing essential services to Alaskans and maximizing operational efficiency, there is, effective immediately, a freeze on the promulgation of new regulations by all agencies. This freeze does not apply to regulations currently out for public notice,' the governor's new order states. If laws enacted by the Legislature and governor are the building blocks of state government, regulations are the mortar that holds them together: Regulations, proposed by state agencies or boards and commissions, cover the details that laws don't, prescribing how state agencies should implement those laws. 'Governor Dunleavy issued Administrative Order 358 to ensure we are spending wisely and living within our means. This temporary pause on new regulations gives agencies time to evaluate priorities and reduce unnecessary regulatory growth,' said Jessica Bowers, a spokesperson for Dunleavy. Since Dunleavy's order, the state's public records system shows only one new regulations package has been posted for public comment. In the same period last year, the online public records system shows seven. There were three during the same stretch of 2023 and five during that stretch of 2022. This year, one of the biggest items affected by the governor's order is a packet of regulations that would fully implement last year's Ballot Measure 1, which requires paid sick leave and a minimum wage increase for workers starting July 1. The measure, which was approved by 58% of participating Alaska voters last year, also forbids 'captive audience meetings,' in which employees must listen to an employer's views on religion, politics or unions. New regulations require a 30-day comment period where the public can suggest changes to the final draft, and those regulations typically don't become effective until 30 days after the final version is signed by the lieutenant governor. In March, Adam Weinert, a special assistant to state Department of Labor Commissioner Cathy Muñoz, said that 'the regulation packet is currently with the Alaska Department of Law, and we intend to have the packet out for a 30-day public comment in the near future.' More than two months later, the packet still has not been published for public comment. The Department of Labor has not answered multiple requests for further information. The delay has alarmed some of the measure's supporters, who think it could be part of a national pattern. In Nebraska and Missouri, voters also passed paid sick leave ballot measures last year. In both places, state legislators proceeded to overturn those ballot measures this spring. Here in Alaska, five Republican members of the state House introduced a bill that would roll back Alaska's voter-approved law. 'As those issues have won at the ballot box, really since 2016, we have seen an escalation of attacks to direct democracy and voter-approved initiatives,' said Chris Melody Fields, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a national progressive organization. 'We've seen that especially on the economic justice ballot measures that were passed in 2024,' she said. The Alaska bill lacks the support needed to pass the House or Senate and may be unconstitutional, which leaves regulatory hurdles as the last obstacle before it becomes effective. Bowers, in the governor's office, cited the text of the governor's administrative order and said that agencies 'can submit a waiver to move forward with paused regulations if the regulations are necessary to protect the safety of the public or to meet other essential State responsibilities.' By email, she confirmed that the Department of Labor has submitted a waiver request and that it is under review. The Alaska Department of Law, which has been examining the regulations package for more than two months, did not answer a question on Friday seeking information about the status of that review. Joelle Hall, president of the Alaska chapter of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 63 national and international labor unions, said that regardless of what happens with the regulations, Ballot Measure 1 will become law on July 1. She supported the measure and has been tracking its implementation with interest. 'Those regs need to have a 30-day comment period … they should have been out 90 days ago, so they could have taken in public comment,' she said. Without regulations, Alaskans will still be entitled to sick leave and a higher minimum wage, but employers might not know how to keep track of that sick leave and report it properly, she said. She noted that the Department of Labor has an FAQ about the measure. Other organizations, including the Foraker Group and the law firm Landye Bennett Blumstein have also published detailed explanations on the new law going into effect. Attorney Scott Kendall said that a regulations package could still go forward after the law becomes effective. But Hall said that still leaves employers guessing. 'You're going to have a lot of employers who are confused about how they're going to track things,' she said. Of the state's decision to wait on releasing regulations, she said, 'I'm not sure what they think they're doing aside from confusing people.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Alaska senators have a chance to protect Medicaid and safeguard vital services for Alaska's youth
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan gives an annual address to the Alaska State Legislature on Mar 20, 2025 (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon) After Alaska's U.S. Rep. Nick Begich cast a vote to advance a budget reconciliation package that would be catastrophic for Alaska, we are counting on our senators to step up. With a narrow balance of power in the U.S. Senate, if U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan has the courage to work with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, he can help stop this unprecedented attack on health care and core Medicaid services. President Donald Trump and Republicans are trying to cancel Alaskans' Medicaid health coverage to finance tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, and those elitists will succeed if our senators don't fight back. Alaska has one of, if not the highest rates of suicide, child abuse, domestic abuse, and sexual assault in the nation. Many of the victims utilize services that are funded by Medicaid. This may include individualized therapy and family therapy, intensive behavioral support in community and school settings, case management that secures outside resources for families in need such as food stamps, housing, therapeutic foster care placements, and reunification with families or adoption. Without access to these services, Alaska's suicide rates could climb, crime rates could increase, and more children could enter foster care without the supportive treatment they need to navigate their trauma. As a frontline mental and behavioral health worker, I worry for the youth I serve and how lack of available services and strained capacity will impact their growth. I worry that in the future, I may see youth that I have served living on the streets, turn to drugs to cope, or succumb to suicide. This month, Anchorage lost the Crisis Recovery Center that provided emergency care to teens experiencing mental health crises. Can we really afford to lose anything more? Our senators have the chance to ensure the youth of Alaska have a safe and stable future. Based on public statements, U.S. Republican Senators Murkowski, Lisa Collins of Maine, and Josh Hawley of Missouri all oppose cuts to Medicaid. Sullivan could be a deciding vote. Will he vote in lockstep to give Outside billionaires a tax cut financed by stealing Alaskans' health coverage, or will he stand up for his adopted state? The stakes could not be higher.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska Legislature makes progress on aid package for ailing seafood industry
Commercial fishing boats are lined up at the dock at Seward's harbor on June 22, 2024. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) To help pull the struggling Alaska seafood industry out of its tailspin, state lawmakers passed some bills aimed at lightening the financial load on harvesters and advanced others that are intended to help businesses and fishery-dependent municipalities. The bills stemmed from recommendations made by the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska's Seafood Industry, which was created by lawmakers last year and which completed its work with a report at the start of this year's session. Lawmakers passed two task force-related bills, giving unanimous or near-unanimous support. One of them, House Bill 116, allows Alaska fishing organizations to establish their own insurance cooperatives. The other bill, Senate Bill 156, shores up the Alaska Commercial Fishing and Agriculture Bank with a long-term loan from the state to keep the cooperative organization in business. The bills pose little to no costs to the state, according to legislative analysis. And they are only incremental steps toward addressing the big problems facing a major Alaska industry. Multiple and often interrelated forces have dragged down nearly all sectors of the seafood industry: low fish prices resulting from glutted world markets, high operating costs, financial turmoil among processing companies, labor shortages and numerous stock collapses or poor returns tied to a variety of environmental conditions, including climate change. While Alaska produces about 60% of the nation's seafood, that volume is overwhelmed by international supplies and global economic forces, limiting lawmakers' options to respond effectively, said Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau. 'Our role is not as big as we imagine. That means the Legislature has only so many tools,' said Kiehl, who served on the task force. 'But you see us, I think, turning the knobs.' Beyond the bills passed this year, other bills resulting from the task force recommendations have advanced far enough to be approaching full floor votes; the Legislature works in two-year cycles, and bills introduced this year carry over to next year. Those remaining seafood task force bills carry price tags for the state, however. They will get some extra scrutiny next year, given the state's dire fiscal condition created by reduced investment earnings and lower oil revenues, task force members said. 'We are in new and unusual times where, you know, we have to look at every issue and try to decide if it's worth the additional cost,' said Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, who served as the task force's chair. One bill, Senate Bill 135, would increase local governments' share of seafood taxes that are currently split with the state government. Currently, fishery business and seafood tax revenues are split evenly between the state and local governments; the bill would allow the local governments up to 75% of those revenues. Some fishing communities endured steep losses from the industry's woes. The island community of St. Paul, for example, saw a drop of nearly 90% of its tax revenue in 2024 after key crab harvests were canceled, according to legislative information. To Stevens, the sacrifice of state revenue through a smaller cut of fish taxes seems justified. Local governments' troubles are likely to continue, he said. 'I think that it'll be even more apparent that we need to give those fellows a break,' he said. Another important bill that resulted from the task force's report would broaden the state tax credit granted to companies that invest in equipment to create new seafood products, adding value to the fish they process. The two versions of the measure, Senate Bill 130 and House Bill 129, both had been sent to their respective bodies' finance committees prior to last week's adjournment of the session. The annual cost to the state would range from $930,000 to $4.2 million a year, depending on different scenarios, according to the state Department of Revenue's analysis of the Senate version. That might be seen as considerable, Stevens conceded. 'But I think it's a fair cost,' he said. It could improve the fortunes of the processing sector and potentially result in more revenues ultimately to the state, he said. Kiehl has high hopes for the bill. It will encourage the development of high-end products, key to the industry's recovery, he said. 'As much as our seafood as we can put into a premium space, that will help,' he said. Differentiating Alaska salmon, for example, as a premium product is critical when competition comes from huge amounts of cheap Russian salmon harvested by fish traps rather than by small family businesses, he said. At the same time, there are opportunities for Alaska fish oil and fish meal to be molded into new products like nutritional supplements, Kiehl said. Those opportunities could be explored by companies investing in equipment to add value to the raw fish they process, he said. The budget that lawmakers passed also reflects task force recommendations for boosted state marketing efforts. The budget includes a $10 million allocation for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, the state agency that promotes Alaska fish products domestically and internationally. Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a similar amount from last year's budget but has expressed support for the ASMI funding this year. An estimated 70 percent of Alaska's fish is sold outside of the United States, according to ASMI. To Kiehl, that shows the importance of the organization's international marketing. 'I don't see a point in the next several decades when Americans buy all of our fish,' he said. 'Americans aren't eating salmon roe or herring roe. Americans don't eat sea cucumbers.' Not in the budget, however, is any significant increase for Alaska Department of Fish and Game fishery research, Stevens said. That may be possible in the future if the state manages to bring in more revenue through tools like changes in oil taxes, he said. More ominously, the Trump administration has slashed positions and fisheries research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with potentially dramatic impacts to Alaska. 'That's really shocking,' Stevens said. 'I am really concerned when the federal government talks about cutting science and research and all the things that they do right now to protect our fisheries.' The state cannot replicate that work by NOAA and its National Marine Fisheries Service, he said. 'The assumption that some people make, 'Oh, the feds can't do it, the state will,' However, we don't have the money to do all these things,' he said. Beyond fisheries, Stevens worries about deep cuts to federal social programs like Medicaid. 'It's going to be an enormous problem, maybe $1 billion, that the feds walk away from. We can't fill that gap.' Other fishery-related bills in addition to those recommended by the task force are also pending. One of them, House Bill 125, would reconfigure the state Board of Fisheries by designating two seats each to the commercial, sport and subsistence sectors, with the seventh seat to represent the science community. Sponsored by Rep. Nellie Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay, the passed the House on May 17 by a relatively close 22-17 vote. It now moves to the Senate. A bill introduced by Dunleavy would expand ASMI's authority, allowing it to market mariculture products. The idea has received a mixed response from the mariculture industry; some kelp harvesters are receptive, but many key shellfish growers oppose it. The Senate version of the measure, Senate Bill 131, had reached that body's finance committee by early May. The bodies' finance committees are usually the last stops for bills before they put up for floor votes. The House version, House Bill 135, had not seen action since March.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska House votes to raise age of sexual consent — but with a caveat
Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, speaks in favor of House Bill 62 on Friday, May 16, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska Legislature is on pace to raise the state's age of sexual consent to 18 next year, after the state House voted 39-0 to approve House Bill 101 on Monday. The bill now goes to the state Senate, which is expected to take it up in January, when lawmakers convene for the second year of the 34th Alaska State Legislature. The bill comes from Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, who said on Monday that it represents a way to fight rape and child sexual assault. Under current law, it is legal for an adult to have sex in Alaska with a 16-year-old or 17-year-old who consents. If that child is assaulted, Gray said, they must prove that they did not consent. 'This makes prosecutions of these cases of sexual assault and sex trafficking more difficult, especially if the young person had seen the perpetrator on multiple occasions, or if alcohol and drugs were involved,' Gray said. The bill has a significant exception: 'For teens 13 to 15 years old, they can consent to sex with someone up to four years older than them. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds can consent to sex with someone up to six years older than them,' he said. That exemption came at the suggestion of domestic violence shelters, sexual assault experts and homeless shelters, who were concerned that without the close-in-age exemption, they would deter teens from seeking help. Additional clauses in the bill criminalize the sending of explicit images of 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds. 'It is my hope that this bill will prevent the strategic targeting of 16- and 17-year-olds by predators,' Gray said. Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, also spoke in support of the bill. 'This bill reminds us that those who are under 18 are still children,' she said. 'They're vulnerable youth. They are figuring out who they are in the world. … Raising the age of consent to 18 makes it easier for law enforcement to say, 'We're going to help you.' It puts the onus on the offender instead of on the victim. That child victim no longer would have to prove that what happened to them was not consensual.' Vance and Gray unsuccessfully attempted last year to change the age of consent, but the proposal ran into technical problems and the session ended before those could be resolved. HB 101's passage came three years after the Legislature voted to limit child marriage by banning marriages involving Alaskans younger than 16. Because sex is permitted between married partners of any age, that effectively raised the state's age of consent to 16. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska Legislature approves $5.5 million for child advocacy centers, fills federal funding shortfall
The Alaska and American flags fly in front of the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska Legislature has approved state funding for child advocacy centers, which support child victims of physical and sexual abuse. Alaska's 20 centers were in limbo, facing a $5.5 million shortfall after federal grants were ended or cut, as well as uncertainty over whether operations and services would continue past June. On Friday afternoon, the budget conference committee – tasked with hammering out the final budget between the House and Senate versions – approved the funds to fill the gap and provide $5.5 million in state funding. Rep. Andy Jospephson, D-Anchorage and chair of the committee, said it was made clear that funding for the centers was a priority. 'They're critically important, and they rose to the very, very top of my list,' he said. 'In other words, there was no ask, given their financial predicament and importance, that I thought was more significant.' Mari Mukai, executive director of the nonprofit Alaska Children's Alliance, said she was grateful for the funding. The alliance provides support, training and technical assistance to Alaska's 20 child advocacy centers around the state. 'I know what a difficult fiscal situation we're in right now and understand that many difficult decisions needed to be made,' she said in a phone interview on Monday. Child advocacy centers provide services for children and their caregivers after suspected physical or sexual abuse, including trauma-informed interviewing, forensic services, streamlined investigations, and victim advocacy through the life of the case. They served 2,061 families statewide last year, Mukai said. The centers are funded at $10.9 million through a mix of federal and local grants, as well as other funding they raise. Mukai said the state's backstop funding will make up about half of their budget, and enable the centers to continue current operations and services. 'Unfortunately, Alaska is consistently on the top of the nation for rates of child abuse and violence, and domestic violence, and so unfortunately, yes, I do think that there's still a lot of need, but this would be a great first step,' she said. The Alaska Legislature voted to approve the final operating budget on Tuesday, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy will issue budget vetoes of individual line items before July 1. Mukai added that another federal grant the centers rely on is in danger – the Victims of Crime Act, provided by the U.S. Department of Justice through penalties related to crimes. Alaska advocates are urging the congressional delegation to push the U.S. Congress to protect this funding, as the Trump administration has moved to cancel hundreds of grants and millions of dollars supporting victims services through the Department of Justice. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
