Latest news with #AlaskaConstitution
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska state budget and other bills head to Gov. Mike Dunleavy
The Alaska State Capitol is seen on the last week of the 2025 session on May 19, 2025 (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon) The three pieces of legislation that make up Alaska's annual state budget are on Gov. Mike Dunleavy's desk. According to legislative records, the state's operating, capital and mental health budgets were transmitted to the governor on Tuesday, giving the governor until June 19 to veto the bills or sign them into law. The governor has the ability to use a line item veto to reduce or eliminate specific items within the budget, and Dunleavy has previously indicated that he may reduce funding for public schools below the amount prescribed by a formula in state law. State legislators voted to raise that formula in the session's last days, overriding Dunleavy's decision to veto the bill containing a $700 increase to the base student allocation, the core of the state's school funding formula. If Dunleavy reduces education funding below what's called for by the formula, it would be unprecedented and akin to former Gov. Bill Walker's decision in 2016 to veto part of the Permanent Fund dividend: Since the education funding formula was created, every governor has followed the law. Two policy bills also were transmitted to the governor on Tuesday. The first, House Bill 75, cleans up some state laws pertaining to the Permanent Fund dividend and was uncontroversial in the House and Senate. The second, Senate Bill 183, would require the executive branch to deliver reports in the form requested by the Alaska Legislature's auditor. Under the Alaska Constitution, the Alaska Legislature has audit authority over the executive branch, but since 2019, lawmakers have been unable to analyze the performance of the section of the Alaska Department of Revenue that audits tax settlements with large oil companies. Lawmakers say the Department of Revenue has switched policies and no longer provides a report that once allowed them to examine the section's work. Members of the department testified that they have turned over raw data, but the legislative auditor testified that her department lacks the information and capability to turn that data into actionable information on the state's oil revenue. The bill was transmitted to the governor's office with a letter from the Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham and Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, asking Dunleavy not to veto it. 'This letter accompanies the bill not as a routine legislative communication, but as a reflection of the extraordinary nature of the circumstances we face,' it read. 'The ongoing obstructions by the DOR must not be allowed to become a precedent for future administrations. We must reinforce, not erode, the norms of oversight and accountability that are vital to Alaska's republican form of government.' If Dunleavy does veto a bill, the Alaska Legislature is not expected to consider an override until January, when lawmakers reconvene in regular session.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dunleavy administration is blocking billion-dollar audit of oil tax disputes, legislators say
Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, D-Anchorage, speaks in the Alaska State Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska Legislature is moving rapidly to pass a bill that would force Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration to disclose reports that could show the state settling oil tax disputes for significantly less than what is owed. 'This bill shouldn't be necessary, but here we are today,' said Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, D-Anchorage and chair of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee, in a Thursday hearing by the House Rules Committee. 'Either the Department of Revenue has already compiled the information requested in the special audit for its own use and is deliberately withholding it from the legislative auditor, or it has failed to do the basic work of calculating the tax, interest, and penalties assessed for each audit cycle,' she said. 'Frankly, I'm not sure which of those scenarios would be more troubling.' The Senate passed Senate Bill 183 on a 19-0 vote Monday. The House of Representatives could vote on it as soon as Friday. Dunleavy could veto it, allow it to pass into law without his signature, or sign it. If enacted, it would require the executive branch to disclose information 'in the form or format requested' by legislative auditors. Under the Alaska Constitution, the Legislature is responsible for overseeing executive branch operations, but since 2019, the legislative auditor has been unable to properly examine the part of the Department of Revenue that audits tax payments by oil and gas companies. 'In the past, the Department of Revenue provided the Legislature with organized summaries showing the total amount of additional tax, interest and penalties assessed for each annual tax cycle,' Gray-Jackson said. 'However, the department now claims it is only required to provide access to raw data, not to compile or categorize information in a usable format, as it had done previously.' Though legislators can examine raw data, they don't have the resources to process them. The change makes analyzing the executive branch's actions impossible, Gray-Jackson said. Legislators have written letters and asked for access, to no avail. 'Unfortunately, the issue remains unresolved, and the auditor still cannot complete this important audit, which concerns the oversight of billions of dollars in state oil and gas revenue,' she said. Until 2019, the first year of Dunleavy's administration, Department of Revenue tax auditors regularly published a memo summarizing total tax and interest assessed after its annual audit cycle. By combining that information with the amount paid in settlements, lawmakers and the public could see what share of assessed taxes and interest were being paid. Without the tax and interest information, it's not clear how oil companies' settlement payments compare with the original state assessments. Under the Alaska Constitution, the Legislature is responsible for overseeing executive branch operations, and the memo was part of that oversight. When the memos stopped, legislative auditors asked for them and were told that they were now confidential. At the time, members of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee were so concerned that they commissioned a special audit of the executive branch's auditors. For five years, they've been unsuccessful. Members of the executive branch say they're not required to turn over compiled reports, only raw data. 'That interpretation overturns long-standing precedent,' said legislative auditor Kris Curtis, 'and it essentially limits the oversight by the Legislature. The fear is that state agencies from here on out will refuse to provide or compile data in any type format for future legislative audits.' Destin Greeley, an audit supervisor for the Department of Revenue, testified Thursday that providing what Curtis requested 'is creating this new work product that is very time-consuming and trying to put a square peg in a round hole for us.' Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, said she doesn't understand why that suddenly became difficult for the Department of Revenue to do. 'I am not buying your story, and this is a huge red flag for me,' she said. 'When you've got hundreds of millions of dollars involved, I'm worried,' Stutes said. Legislative attorney Emily Nauman said she believes the new bill will resolve the ongoing dispute 'if the department complies with the law.' If not, she said, the topic could head to the courts. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska Legislature will vote Tuesday on school funding veto, with override not expected
Students file past Gov. Mike Dunleavy's offices in the state Capitol as they protest his veto of a wide ranging education bill on April 4, 2024. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon) Alaska's state House and Senate are scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. Tuesday to vote on whether or not to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy's veto of a bill increasing the state's per-student funding formula. Multiple lawmakers have said that the Legislature likely lacks the votes for an override. Under the Alaska Constitution, the votes of 40 of the Legislature's 60 members, meeting in joint session, are required to override the veto of a policy bill. House Bill 69, which seeks to increase the base student allocation — core of Alaska's per-pupil funding formula — passed the House and Senate by a combined vote of 32-25. HB 69 proposes an increase of $1,000 to the BSA, or $253 million per year in total. Last year, legislators proposed a $680 increase to the BSA, and the related bill passed the House and Senate by a combined vote of 56-3. Legislators failed to override Dunleavy's veto of that bill by a single vote. Public education advocates say years of flat state funding has led to significant cuts to Alaska's public schools, which have had to deal with inflation-driven cost increases. The governor, and a decisive number of legislators who support him, say funding increases must be paired with policy changes intended to improve school performance. Two years of negotiations have failed to result in a suite of policy changes that are acceptable to the governor and a majority of legislators. Without the formula change, the public-school funding level in the state's annual operating budget will be decisive. The House has voted in favor of a budget that includes one-time bonus funding equivalent to a $1,000 BSA increase, but because the House's budget also includes a significant deficit, the Senate may propose a smaller increase. The Senate's draft budget has yet to emerge from the Senate Finance Committee. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gov. Dunleavy vetoes school funding boost
Apr. 17—JUNEAU — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Thursday vetoed a $1,000 increase to the Base Student Allocation, the state's per-student funding formula. The Alaska Legislature narrowly passed House Bill 69 on Friday despite the fact that Dunleavy had threatened to veto the bill. Legislators stripped policy provisions from the measure that were intended to appeal to Dunleavy. Dunleavy said he vetoed the bill because "the revenue situation has deteriorated a lot since we submitted the bill and worked up a budget" and because "there's no policy" in the bill. Dunleavy said he would introduce an alternate bill this week with a smaller increase to the Base Student Allocation along with his policy priorities. That bill would include a $560 increase to the Base Student Allocation, along with $35 million in other targeted investments, according to Dunleavy aide Jordan Shilling. The bill, which had yet to be formally introduced as of Thursday, includes provisions to allow students to enroll in school districts other than the ones in which they reside; ease the process of forming new charter schools and make it harder for local school districts to revoke existing charters; increase funding for homeschooling programs by hundreds of dollars per correspondence student; pay districts $450 per elementary school student who performs well on reading assessments; and require schools to adopt cellphone use policies. School administrators across Alaska have said a substantial school funding boost is needed after almost a decade of virtually flat funding. School districts report that hundreds of jobs could be cut without a $1,000 increase to the $5,960 BSA. An education funding boost of that size would cost the state over $250 million per year. Many in the Legislature have said that is unaffordable with the state facing a $680 million deficit over two fiscal years based on status quo spending. Supporters of the $1,000 BSA boost have pledged to try to override Dunleavy's veto. Support from 40 of 60 lawmakers, or two-thirds of the Legislature, would be required to override Dunleavy's veto. Thirty-two legislators voted for the stripped-down education bill on Friday. Multiple legislators have said that they likely don't have the votes required to override a veto. The vetoed bill is now set to head back to the Legislature. The Alaska Constitution states that the Legislature "shall meet immediately in joint session" to consider vetoed bills. The veto came just as lawmakers were leaving Juneau for the Easter holiday. Senate President Gary Stevens said a joint session was planned for Wednesday, once all lawmakers were back in the Capitol. "Unlikely we will get to 40 but one never knows until you try," Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, said in a text message. "If it is not successful, we will roll up our sleeves and get to work, because we know that our schools are in crisis," said Sen. Löki Tobin, who chairs the Senate Education Committee. During his Thursday morning press conference, Dunleavy offered a highlight reel of his recent comments on education: He cited a study of charter schools — which has drawn criticism from school officials, lawmakers and researchers — that found Alaska's system outperformed other states'; he denigrated the National Education Association; and he said funding alone would not improve students' outcomes, even as he insisted that he was, in fact, in favor of a nominal funding increase. The funding increase he proposed Thursday would, in effect, serve as a reduction in real funding to most school districts compared to funding approved by lawmakers last year, after accounting for inflation, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is the third year in a row that Dunleavy has vetoed major education funding legislation in some form. In 2023, Dunleavy vetoed half of a one-time $680 BSA increase. In 2024, Dunleavy vetoed a bill that would have permanently increased the BSA by $680, but allowed the BSA to be boosted by that amount on a one-time basis. "While we agree that additional funding for education is necessary, the fiscal reality dictates that the amount put forward match this reality. The amount put forward in this bill does not," Dunleavy wrote in a letter explaining the veto. While Dunleavy said that a funding increase would not constitute a sufficient policy shift to improve Alaska students' lagging outcomes, Tobin said that funding alone would allow districts to adopt policies that would benefit students. "Funding school is a policy choice. Funding schools reduces class sizes, retains quality educators and ensures that there's programming outside of the essentials that kids love," said Tobin, an Anchorage Democrat. Tobin said Dunleavy's proposed open enrollment policy indicated "his office doesn't seem to realize that top-down approaches with a diverse and complex education system that we have here in the state don't work" because some schools have unique application and enrollment requirements. Tobin said the policy would primarily benefit students from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough seeking to enroll in Anchorage School District programs — an example that Dunleavy offered when he spoke in favor of the policy during his press conference. Fairbanks Republican Rep. Will Stapp called the policies proposed by Dunleavy "very reasonable." Stapp voted in favor of overriding Dunleavy's veto of an education bill last year, but said he would not vote in favor of overriding Dunleavy's veto of the BSA-boosting bill. Instead, he said the Legislature should pass Dunleavy's newly proposed legislation with minimal changes, if any. "I don't see anything in here that's super controversial," said Stapp, a member of the Republican minority. "I don't know why we wouldn't just pass this." Dunleavy's bill could have an unequal fiscal impact on school districts. The handful of school districts that run large, statewide correspondence programs would stand to gain more than those that lack such programs. And districts with a greater share of students who can read at grade level could, in the short-term, get a financial advantage over districts with a higher proportion of students who underperform in reading. Dunleavy has presided over a massive increase in publicly funded homeschooling programs during his tenure. As a state Senate member, he had pushed for laws governing those programs to be vastly relaxed, allowing parents to use public funds for more purposes, including to cover the cost of private school tuition. During Dunleavy's time as governor, the share of Alaska public school students enrolled in correspondence programs — rather than traditional brick-and-mortar programs — has gone from around 10% to close to 20%. As lawmakers have sought to address education funding amid an ever-shrinking revenue forecast, the governor has faced criticism in recent days — including from members of his own party — over his prolonged absences from Juneau and disengagement from the legislative process. Dunleavy said Thursday that his administration is "prepared to continue to work with the Legislature and stakeholders to agree to a bill as soon as possible." "I'm a phone call away, even if I'm in Taiwan trying to get an LNG line," he said. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska House votes to rename ocean park in honor of longtime political figure
Vic Fischer, the last surviving author of Alaska's constitution, sits with wife Jane Angvik and listens to U.S. Senate candidates speak at the Oct. 22, 2022, forum at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) Alaska lawmakers are planning to name a park in honor of one of the signers of the Alaska Constitution. On Monday, the Alaska House of Representatives voted 37-3 to name Shoup Bay State Marine Park in honor of Victor Fischer, who was the last living signatory to the Alaska Constitution when he died in 2023 at age 99. Shoup Bay is located 5 miles from Valdez, and if the Alaska Senate passes House Bill 79 and Gov. Mike Dunleavy allows it to become law, the park would become Vic Fischer Shoup Bay State Marine Park. Fischer was active in state and local politics for decades, and as a member of the Alaska Legislature in 1983, sponsored the legislation that created Alaska's first 13 state marine parks. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources said that the name change could be done at no cost; the new name will be added to signs and other material during the ordinary schedule of replacement.
