Latest news with #AlaskaLegislature
Yahoo
4 days ago
- 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
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
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New bill would prohibit hard-rock metals mining in Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed
Braided wetlands and tundra in the Bristol Bay watershed are seen from the air on July 26, 2010. Seen here is Upper Talarik Creek, which flows into Lake Iliamna and then the Kvichak River before emptying into Bristol Bay. A new bill introduced on the last day of the Alaska Legislature's 2025 session would bar hard-rock metals mining in the Bristol Bay watershed. (Photo provided by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) Mere hours before he banged his gavel to adjourn this year's session of the Alaska House of Representatives, Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, introduced a bill to bar metals mining from the Bristol Bay watershed. The measure, House Bill 233, would expand on the Environmental Protection Agency's 2023 decision prohibiting permitting of the controversial Pebble Project in the region. The Biden administration action, which followed up on a process started in the Obama administration, invoked a rarely used provision on the Clean Water Act to prevent development of the huge open-pit copper and gold mine planned for the region upstream from salmon-rich Bristol Bay. Edgmon's bill would ban all metallic sulfide mining in the area designated as the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve, which encompasses state land in the Bristol Bay watershed. Metallic sulfide mining, also known as hard-rock mining, is the type of mining that extracts elements like gold and copper from acid-generating rocks classified as sulfides. When these sulfides are processed, they commonly cause acid to drain out. It is a method distinct from placer mining, which sifts out metals from loose sediments. The copper and gold that would be produced at the Pebble project is held in sulfide ore and would be extracted through hard-rock mining. The Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve was established by the Legislature in 1972 to prevent oil and gas development in the region. The effort was led by Jay Hammond, who was president of the state Senate at the time. He later became governor. Under House Bill 223, the Hammond-championed prohibitions on petroleum development would be expanded to mining. The justifications for the 1972 action 'also warrant new protections to prevent hardrock mining activities that would risk polluting the region's river systems, ground water, aquifer systems,' as well as any drainages that connect to Bristol Bay's surface water, the bill's text says. Edgmon is from the Bristol Bay region. The bill will be considered next year, along with other measures still pending in the 34th Legislature. Alannah Hurley, executive director of a consortium of Native tribal governments in the Bristol Bay region, said the bill would provide extra protection for EPA's action. That protection is needed because of 'the uncertainty that we're continuing to face' from litigation pressed by Pebble's sponsors, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and the Pebble Limited Partnership it owns, said Hurley, who is with United Tribes of Bristol Bay, an organization that has long opposed the Pebble project. Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Limited Partnership have sued to overturn the 2023 EPA determination, and the case remains active. The state of Alaska, at the direction of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, has also sued the federal government over the action. Hurley said that beyond upholding the EPA determination, the bill would prevent the development of other metals mines in the region, Hurley said. There are about 20 active claims that could be developed into large metals mines, though not as large as the proposed Pebble project, she said. If the bill passes, 'we wouldn't have to face 20 other mining claims piecemeal over who knows how many decades,' she said. While the bill is new, the effort behind it goes back a long time, Hurley said. 'This is something the tribes have been talking about for years. We need the EPA protection, but we also need legislation to really protect the watershed,' she said. A legislative effort similar to House Bill 233 was mounted on the federal level by former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska. She introduced the Bristol Bay Protection Act a year ago to codify the EPA's Clean Water Act determination barring a Pebble-type mine from being permitted in the Bristol Bay watershed. The act died in committee, and Peltola lost her seat in November to current Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska. The tribes and other Pebble opponents have thus turned their attention to the Legislature now that Peltola is no longer in the U.S. House, Hurley said. 'The fact that she wasn't reelected has frustrated expectations that we can make any progress with Congress,' Hurley said. There have been previous efforts in the Alaska Legislature, as well. In 2015, Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, introduced a measure, House Bill 119, that would require legislative approval for any large-scale metallic sulfide mine in the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve. It failed to reach the House floor. Josephson introduced a similar bill, House Bill 14, in 2017. It also died in committee. Josephson is a co-sponsor of Edgmon's new bill. Representatives of Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Limited Partnership were not available to comment on the new bill. Dunleavy, who has been supportive of the Pebble project, has not taken a position, said his spokesperson, Jeff Turner. The bill was just introduced, so the governor has not had time to review it, Turner said. 'As a general rule, the Governor's office does not comment on legislation until it has passed and been transmitted to his office,' he said by email. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republican opposition kills bill intended to fix Alaska's absentee voting problems
The Alaska House of Representatives is seen in action on Monday, May 5, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) A major elections reform bill, a priority of House and Senate leaders, is dead in the Alaska Legislature. Wednesday is the last day of the regular legislative session, and members of the House's multipartisan majority said on Saturday that they lack the support needed to overcome the opposition of the House's Republican minority in the time they have left. Bills don't expire at the end of the first year of the two-year legislative session, but Senate Bill 64 needed to become law this year in order to be implemented in time for the 2026 election. Among the changes in the bill: Speedier ballot counting, better tracking of absentee ballots, ballot dropboxes across the state, free return postage for absentee ballots, a liaison to help fix voting issues in rural Alaska, permanent absentee ballot registration, a method to fix paperwork problems after an absentee ballot is cast, the elimination of the requirement that a 'witness' sign a voter's absentee ballot, and additional security audits. Many of the House's Republicans objected to the bill, saying that they believe it did not do enough to address their concerns about election security. The Senate passed SB 64 on Monday, but Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome and co-chair of the House Finance Committee said that House Republicans were prepared to offer so many amendments to the bill that it would have required members of the House to abandon all other work in order to push the bill across the finish line. Even then, it could have been vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican. With those possibilities in play, the House majority's 14 Democrats, five independents and two Republicans met behind closed doors and decided to abandon the effort. 'The caucus just said, 'We're either gonna have to set everything else aside and focus on that, and probably still won't get it through, or we just say we're going to have to set it aside,'' Foster said. 'We all decided as a group that … to try to do it in four days, it was not good public process. If we had two weeks, that would have been fast tracking it, and maybe we could have gotten it through,' he said. A disproportionately large number of absentee ballots are rejected from rural Alaska in each election cycle, and Foster — in charge of scheduling bills for the House Finance Committee — said he really wanted to see SB 64 advance, but it was clear that it wasn't possible, barring an unlikely special session. Late Friday, as the bill's fate became clear, the Republican minority issued a triumphant news release. 'This bill greases the skids for all mail-in elections like Anchorage has. SB 64 is the biggest hoax that the Democrats have promulgated so far this year — and that is saying a lot since there are some other bills that are contenders,' said Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, in the message. 'Alaskans should be appalled. Talk about a bill that will bring out more fraud! SB 64 is the Election Fraud bill!' Other Republican opponents were more measured. 'Rushing a nonpartisan bill through at the last minute isn't how the legislative process is meant to work. I'm glad we'll have the chance to take a closer look at SB 64 next year,' said Rep. Frank Tomaszewski, R-Fairbanks, in the news release. Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage and the lead person pushing SB 64, noted that this is the third time in the past three legislative sessions that the Legislature has failed to pass a significant elections bill. 'I know there's groups out there that are looking at ballot initiatives. Very frankly, at this point, they're just so frustrated with the Legislature because it's been a decade working on this bill,' he said. 'So I think if we don't get something done this year, you're going to start seeing some people talk about just doing an initiative for the sections that they want.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmakers adopt 3 bills caught in legal limbo in effort to avoid constitutional challenge
May 16—JUNEAU — The Alaska Legislature adopted several bills Friday in an effort to resolve a legal dispute that arose from last year's legislative session. Lawmakers last year passed a bill that combined multiple measures, extending several boards and commissions; creating child care tax credits; and limiting the number of hunting guides in some parts of the state. But a former state legislator later sued the state over what he claimed was a violation of the "single subject rule," a constitutional requirement that provisions included in a single bill all relate to one cohesive topic. The disparate measures at the center of the lawsuit were bundled into a single piece of legislation as the deadline for last year's session neared, despite concerns raised by legislative attorneys over the so-called "single subject rule." Gov. Mike Dunleavy allowed the legislation to become law without his signature. Former Wasilla Rep. David Eastman then asked the Juneau Superior Court to block the Dunleavy administration from implementing the legislation. The lawsuit is ongoing. In response, lawmakers this year advanced several pieces of last year's measure separately in three bills: one to extend several boards and commissions; one to make changes to rules governing hunting guides; and one to create the new child care tax credits. Joe Geldhof, the attorney representing Eastman in the case, said Friday that the passage of this year's bills — even if they are signed into law by Dunleavy — would not render the ongoing lawsuit moot, because Eastman is still seeking a determination regarding whether last year's legislative action violated the state constitution. "David Eastman wants a clear-cut ruling on the measure that was passed, and I think he's entitled to that, and I think the judiciary might be inclined to give it to him, so this doesn't happen again," Geldhof said Friday. The case is scheduled for a two-day trial in December. Attorney General Treg Taylor previously requested the court to pause the proceedings while the Legislature considers bills "to cure any alleged defects" that arose from last year's bill. Superior Court Judge Larry Woolford denied the request. House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, a Dillingham independent, said that the House's effort to pass the three bills Friday was done to put the ongoing litigation to bed without creating a new precedent. Lawmakers frequently rely on the ability to bundle together multiple bills in the final days of a session, Edgmon said. "Being able to roll bills together in a sine die session is a valuable tool, but anytime it's misused, which on occasion it is, it can be a real nuisance," said Edgmon. "More legislators support having that tool available if it's used sparingly and judiciously, but there are some who think that it's not a necessary tool." The three bills head now to the governor's desk. Dunleavy has not commented publicly on whether he will support the measures. Senate Bill 96, the child care tax credit measure, allows certain corporations to claim credits in exchange for covering the cost of their employees' child care. The bill passed 35-4 in the House and 18-1 in the Senate, after multiple advocacy groups, including the Alaska Chamber, said it would help address a crisis in affordable child care. "The incentive for that was to try to get the private sector to try to create more benefits and help the child care crisis that we're in," said Rep. Julie Coulombe, an Anchorage Republican who sponsored the original legislation last year. "It will help our economy, it helps our kids and it helps the private sector fight this battle with us to get more child care spots." Senate Bill 97, the hunting guide legislation, which is modeled after an existing practice on federal lands, would limit the number of commercial guides on state lands. The bill passed the House with no opposition, 39-0. It passed the Senate 18-1. "The intended results are twofold: reduce hunter conflicts due to overcrowding, and conservation of wildlife," said House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, an Anchorage Republican. Senate Bill 80 extends the sunset date of four boards — the Board of Massage Therapy, the Marijuana Control Board, the Alaska Commission on Aging, and the Big Game Commercial Services Board. The bill passed the House and Senate unanimously. The measure "ensures these programs will remain in place regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit currently pending in courts," said Rep. Carolyn Hall, an Anchorage Democrat. Daily News reporter Sean Maguire contributed.
