Latest news with #AlaskaSenate
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate President Gary Stevens to retire; House Rep. Louise Stutes announces run for seat
Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, prepares to open the Alaska Senate's floor session on Friday, May 2, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) After 22 years in the Alaska Senate, Senate President Gary Stevens is retiring. Stevens' decision has been discussed in the Alaska Capitol for more than a year, but on Tuesday, it became official as Kodiak Republican Rep. Louise Stutes became the first person to announce that she will run for Stevens' seat. 'I certainly will endorse Louise any way I can to help her out,' Stevens said on Wednesday. 'She should be a really fine senator. She's had a lot of experience in the House, and I think she'd do a great job, and I'd be glad to help her out in any way I can.' Stutes filed a letter of intent with the Alaska Public Offices Commission shortly after the Alaska Legislature adjourned its regular session for the year. Legislators are forbidden from campaigning during the session, and the day after the first year of the legislative session typically marks the informal opening of the candidate filing period. Campaigning typically doesn't begin in earnest until after the second year of the legislative session. Stutes' early start may be a foreshadowing of things to come in the district: Stevens has represented the area covering Kodiak and the southern Kenai Peninsula since being appointed to the seat in 2003, making next year's election a generational shift for the district. Stutes said on Wednesday that fundraising doesn't come naturally to her, 'so I thought that I'd better get a jump start on it. You can't get a jump start on it until you file your letter.' Stutes said she doesn't know whether there will be many candidates in the race. Each of Alaska's Senate districts includes two House districts. Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, represents the other half of Stevens' district and hasn't filed a letter of intent for next year's elections. She did not return a phone call seeking comment on Wednesday afternoon. Stutes noted that her husband, commercial fisherman Stormy Stutes, grew up in Anchor Point, and they still have family members who live in Vance's district, so she has connections to that part of Alaska. This isn't the first time that Stevens has said he will retire, but it's certain this time. 'I'm 83 now. I'll be 85 when I retire, and I think that's just enough,' he said by phone. 'I have other plans, things I want to do. I wrote a play about Ted Stevens that was successful in Anchorage; I want to do another one. I'm a bit of a painter, and I want to go on and do painting and writing and concentrate on those things, as well as spend time with my grandkids.' Stutes said she's been interested in running to replace Stevens since that first abortive retirement. 'I'm really lucky. Gary and I get along really well. … He's been wonderful to work with. I'll really miss him, of course, because we have such a great working relationship,' she said. Voters elected Stutes to replace longtime Kodiak lawmaker Alan Austerman in 2014 and reelected her five times since then. She has governed as a moderate Republican, frequently joining the House's predominantly Democratic coalition and once served a term as speaker of the House. 'I'm like every legislator. I really feel like I'm helping my district and Alaskans. Right or wrong, I feel like I've been able to make a difference with the Marine Highway System. I believe I've been able to help bring fisheries to the forefront,' Stutes said. 'When I first got elected years ago, I told Stormy that the one thing I want to do is take fisheries from the back burner and put them on the front burner. And I think that I've been somewhat successful in moving it forward.' The Alaska Senate is currently controlled by a 14-person bipartisan coalition that includes nine Democrats and five Republicans. Three of those Republicans are up for reelection next year, and all are in potential swing districts. Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, and Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, said they will run for office again. Stevens is the third. Among the coalition's Democrats, Sens. Elvi Gray-Jackson, D-Anchorage, and Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, both confirmed that they will run for reelection. Sens. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, and Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, have not yet filed letters of intent. Hoffman has been in the Legislature since 1987 and in the Senate since 1991, making him the longest-serving legislator in state history. Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, said on Wednesday that he hasn't yet decided whether he will run for reelection. Sens. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, and Rob Myers, R-North Pole, also face reelection next year. Neither returned a text message seeking comment on Wednesday. Among incumbent members of the state House, Reps. Maxine Dibert, D-Anchorage, Carolyn Hall, D-Anchorage, and Donna Mears, D-Anchorage, have all filed letters of intent for reelection. Former Rep. Cliff Groh, D-Anchorage, announced that he will again seek to challenge Rep. David Nelson, R-Anchorage, in 2026. Nelson had been elected in 2020, lost to Groh in 2022 and defeated Groh in Wednesday afternoon, Groh was the only nonincumbent to file with the Public Offices Commission. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska senators vote to end daylight saving time in America's farthest-north state
Members of the Alaska Senate watch the votes for and against Senate Bill 26 on Monday, May 12, 2025, in Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) Alaska would be on the same time zone as Seattle for four months of the year, if a bill passed Monday by the Alaska Senate becomes law. The Senate voted 18-2 to pass Senate Bill 26, which would eliminate daylight saving time in Alaska and ask the federal government to put Alaska on Pacific Standard Time. 'Senate Bill 26 is a compromise that addresses long-standing frustrations with Alaska's timekeeping system,' said Sen. Kelly Merrick, R-Eagle River and the bill's sponsor. 'This bill would permanently exempt Alaska from daylight saving time, keeping us on standard time year-round.' If fully implemented, the bill would leave Alaska in the same time zone as Seattle from November through early March. The rest of the year, it would be one hour behind that city, as Washington state observes daylight saving time. If Congress passes a bill allowing permanent daylight saving time, Alaska would return to being one hour behind Seattle permanently. Merrick said her bill is supported by the state's tourism trade association, as well as financial institutions, 'because it keeps us within three or four hours of the stock market and financial center in New York.' Daylight saving time has been a regular topic of conversation in the Alaska Legislature. The Alaska Senate voted to request the elimination of daylight saving time in 2015, but the House failed to pass the bill. No DST bill was introduced in 2017 or 2018, but since then, a daylight saving time bill has been introduced in either the House or Senate every year since 2019. The bill goes in a different direction from Alaska's neighbor, Yukon, which moved to permanent daylight time in 2020, leaving the territory geographically adjacent but two hours away, chronologically, from November through early March. For a century, Alaska stretched over four time zones. That changed in 1983, when the state's time zones were consolidated to two, with Yakutat being the only community that kept its previous time zone. The result means that in most parts of Alaska, the clock has little to do with the position of the sun in the sky. Sen. Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks, proposed a competing bill that would move Alaska to permanent Alaska Standard Time, but that idea stalled out in committee. 'I do believe that permanent standard time makes more sense for daylight. It's more in sync for where we're at. However, because we're at such a high latitude, it matters a lot less,' he said, explaining that the amount of daylight changes rapidly throughout the year. Kawasaki ended up voting for the bill. 'My main issue with time is that you have to reset your clocks twice, and that's a big pain in the ass,' he said. Sens. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, and Robert Myers, R-North Pole, shared his concerns about solar time but voted against the bill. 'I've opposed changing it numerous times over the years,' Stedman said. 'It just doesn't work relative to sun time,' he said. Myers said the bill has the potential to aggravate that problem. 'I am not a fan of the time zone change portion of that bill,' he said. 'Most of Alaska … is already an hour off of where we should be solar time, and there are some studies out there dealing with both health and energy use that say we should stay close to solar time.' 'I really would love to see the federal government repeal daylight saving time across the board,' he said. In April, President Donald Trump said he was open to the idea and urged Congress to pass a bill making daylight saving time permanent, thus eliminating the annual clock change. That makes this the right time to pass SB 26, Merrick said. 'Having the federal administration on board greatly increases our chances of successfully eliminating daylight saving time,' she said. 'I know sometimes change is hard, but SB 26 will keep us from having to change our clocks, at least.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska Senate approves pared-down budget draft while warning of ‘coming storm' in state finances
Members of the Alaska Senate watch the tally board for the vote on the state's draft operating budget, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) Members of the Alaska Senate issued warnings Wednesday as they approved a draft operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Senators' draft, which includes an estimated $1,000 Permanent Fund dividend for eligible Alaskans and a small year-over-year increase for K-12 education, also cuts services. The proposal would cut proposed funding increases for early education programs, reduce funding for state prisons, eliminate the state's office of citizenship assistance, mostly defund the state militia, reduce road maintenance, and deny salary increases except as required by union contracts. Legislators are trying to address a significant deficit caused by low oil prices, and Wednesday's 16-4 vote by the Senate keeps the Capitol on schedule for the May 21 end of the regular session. The Senate's draft of the budget measure, House Bill 53, is scheduled to return to the House as soon as Friday. If lawmakers there vote down the Senate draft, that action would set up the creation of a conference committee designed to combine the Senate's draft budget with one passed by the House in April. The resulting compromise likely would be among the last items completed before lawmakers end their session for the year. The budget bill would then go to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has the power to veto individual line items. Members of the bipartisan group that leads the Senate said they wanted to balance the budget without using the state's savings accounts, because a worsening state fiscal picture will almost certainly require tapping them next year. 'The Senate Finance chairs believe that the state is facing some very strong headwinds in future budgets,' said Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel and the lead author of the Senate's draft budget. Right now, the Senate's $5.8 billion budget proposal has a small surplus when combined with all other spending bills and the state's spring revenue forecast. But that surplus is almost certainly an illusion, Hoffman said. The federal government is cutting the amount of money it sends to states, oil prices are below what was forecast in March, labor contracts will increase in costs, and this year's budget uses one-time funding sources that won't be available next year. Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, presents the Senate's draft operating budget to the full Senate on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) 'With all of these budget headwinds, it's clear to me that the decisions next year will be more difficult than the decisions made today,' Hoffman said. Where the House proposed spending from savings to boost the amount of the Permanent Fund dividend and increase some spending on services, the Senate prioritized the state's savings accounts. 'Now is the time to preserve our rainy-day fund for that coming storm,' Hoffman said. All 14 members of the Senate's bipartisan majority caucus voted in favor of the budget proposal, as did two Republicans who are members of the Senate's all-Republican minority caucus and sit on the finance committee. 'This is a conservative budget, no matter how you look at it. It's very lean,' said Sen. Mike Cronk, R-Tok and one of those lawmakers. 'Is this perfect? No. It's going to be a lot worse next year, and I think that people in Alaska need to understand that,' he said. Sen. James Kaufman, R-Anchorage, listens to Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka (not pictured) talk about the Senate's draft operating budget to the full Senate on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) Sen. Robert Yundt, R-Wasilla, is also a member of the Senate minority and criticized Dunleavy, whose initial budget proposal in December included a $3,900 Permanent Fund dividend and a $1.5 billion deficit. 'I've heard and felt frustration from members of all four caucuses,' he said. 'It is baffling to me that you can walk in here and say, 'Here, 60 people — here's a budget that's a billion and a half dollars upside-down.' It shouldn't be legal.' The House's draft budget, which followed the governor's proposal, had plenty of problems, said Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, R-Wasilla. The Senate's finance committee 'were handed a bag of lemons and told to make lemonade, and frankly, when you look at what they were able to do … I think they really did,' he said. But Shower, Yundt and two other members of the Senate minority noted that even with the Senate's cuts, the budget is unsustainable and that they couldn't support it. Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, said that Alaskans need to be aware that over the past 10 years, the growth in state spending on services has been below the rate of inflation. As a result, services have gotten worse because dollars don't stretch as far as they used to. Construction contracts for road projects aren't getting out on time, he said. 'The notion that we're vastly overspending on the services Alaskans want and expect, don't you believe it for a second,' he said. Kiehl joined Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, in saying that if Alaskans want a larger Permanent Fund dividend and better services, they need to ask their legislators to vote for revenue bills. Wielechowski noted that in the coming fiscal year, Alaska will spend more on tax deductions and tax credits for oil companies than it will on the dividend. 'We need to reevaluate how we are doing things in this state,' Wielechowski said. 'We are not following our constitutional obligation to get the maximum value for our resources. If you want a full PFD, you want to have a 50-50 PFD, you have to fix oil taxes. You absolutely have to do that.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska Senate advances measure requiring greater oversight of oil and gas tax data
May 7—JUNEAU — The Alaska Senate on Monday unanimously advanced a measure requiring greater legislative oversight of the state's oil and gas tax collections. Since 2019, the Alaska Department of Revenue has declined to provide the Legislature's auditor with oil and gas tax data in the format requested. Lawmakers have been frustrated that they don't have a full picture of those tax collections that can total hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Senate Bill 183 would require agencies to provide tax information in the "form and format" requested by the auditor. The measure clarifies that failing to do so could incur a fine of up to $5,000. The Senate unanimously approved the measure on Monday, sending it to the House for its consideration. Kris Curtis, the Legislature's auditor, told lawmakers last week that the Department of Revenue audits oil and gas tax returns to ensure the state is getting all of the revenue it is owed. "When an underpayment is identified, this group sends an assessment letter to the taxpayer identifying additional tax due. This is referred to as tax assessments. A taxpayer may also be required to pay interest," she said. The information requested by the auditor includes additional taxes, interest and penalties paid by oil and gas companies each year. Between 2006 and 2011, the total tax and interest assessed by the Department of Revenue added up to $1.3 billion. Gov. Mike Dunleavy took office in late 2018. Curtis said the Department of Revenue stopped providing that information in the format requested around 2019. Instead, the agency has provided a "data dump" that lawmakers say is unusable. The Department of Revenue first said the requested data was confidential, despite being routinely provided in the past, Curtis told lawmakers. More recently, revenue officials have said they were not required by law to provide the data in the format requested, she said. That has led Curtis to issue "qualified" reports on the state's oil and gas tax collections, reflecting that incomplete information was provided. "Reluctance on behalf of the Department of Revenue to provide information from an audit perspective raises a lot of red flags," Curtis said in testimony on the bill. "And I have concerns from the audit perspective as to why. And I would like to help determine that, not just for you, but for the public." Before Monday's vote, Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski said the Department of Revenue is responsible for reviewing oil and gas tax returns, and ensuring that the state of Alaska is receiving every dollar owed to it. He said the agency's refusal to provide "usable information" for the legislative auditor and lawmakers "sets a dangerous precedent" that could obscure future audits. "That's not theoretical. That's real money resulting from real audits, directly affecting the state's bottom line," he said. Aimee Bushnell, a spokesperson for the Department of Revenue, said by email Tuesday that "nothing is blocked" by the agency and that "legislative auditors have access to all information" on oil and gas tax collections. Bushnell said that previously, the legislative auditor created various tables based on data provided by the agency. But the auditor updated those tables around 2017, she said. The state agency "spent many hours trying to plug information" into those tables "that do not reflect how the tax system compiles and maintains its data," Bushnell said. Management at the state Tax Division determined there were more efficient ways to report the oil and gas collection data, she said. Additionally, it was "overly cumbersome" to compile the information in the format requested by the auditor, and "by producing these tables on a regular basis, we could not maintain taxpayer confidentiality," Bushnell said. Legislators have long been frustrated that the auditor is not getting the data in the format requested. Anchorage Democratic Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, chair of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee, sent a letter in February asking that the Dunleavy administration "fully cooperate" with the legislative auditor. "If executive branch agencies can pick and choose what information to provide or what format, they can intentionally, or not, obstruct the Legislature's ability to perform independent oversight on behalf of the public, effectively hiding billions of dollars from public view," she said. SB 183 was supported by all senators present in Juneau on Monday. Wasilla Republican Sen. Mike Shower, the Senate minority leader, said he was initially concerned the auditor would be granted too much undue influence over the executive branch. But he said the measure does not expand the auditor's authority. Instead, it helps ensure the Legislature has "appropriate oversight and authority over the budget," he said. After passing the Senate, the bill now heads to the House, where it is being fast-tracked through the committee process. A first hearing has been scheduled on Thursday with two weeks left in the regular legislative session.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Between vows against taxes and using savings, the 2025 PFD and Alaska state services are in a vise
Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, listens to a presentation on the proposed amendment to the Alaska Constitution on Thursday, April 24, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) As Alaska lawmakers confront a major budget deficit, legislators' opposing views on possible solutions appear likely to lead to a lower Permanent Fund dividend and cuts to services, including public schools. In public statements, members of the Alaska Senate's majority caucus have said they oppose spending from savings to balance the budget and want to see new revenue bills instead. Meanwhile, members of the state House and Gov. Mike Dunleavy have said they oppose new revenue bills and would prefer to spend from savings. Those different positions leave only budget cuts — to public services and the dividend — as the way to balance the budget. 'It's still a very dynamic conversation right now. … We can clearly see we don't have enough funds to pay for everything,' said Rep. Bill Elam, R-Nikiski. 'In the absence of revenue, the PFD is going to go away. An affordable PFD this year is like $500,' said Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage. As it prepares its draft of the state's operating budget, the Alaska Senate's finance committee has already stripped out all spending increases proposed by the state House in its draft budget, and it has nixed most of the increases requested by Dunleavy. Even after cutting more than $200 million from a budget draft approved by the House, the Senate Finance draft budget has a deficit of at least $70 million — and possibly much more, depending on the results of ongoing labor negotiations and other factors. Next on the chopping block is the dividend, set at $1,400 per recipient by the House. 'I believe, because of the tightness of this year's budget, we are looking at reducing that further, but no further than $1,000,' Hoffman said. That reduction would save close to $420 million, he told reporters on Tuesday, but the size of the reduction hasn't been finalized. While legislators have not agreed on a new formula to set the dividend, the amounts each of the past two years were based on 25% of the annual draws from the Permanent Fund, a share supported by some senators since at least 2017. Reducing the dividend below $1,400 would end that practice. With three weeks left in the Legislature's regular session, the Senate has passed one revenue bill — modifying the state's corporate income tax for big Internet companies like Amazon — and two others remain in committee. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, confirmed that the Senate will not pass the biggest revenue proposal this year: a reduction in the per-barrel tax credit given to oil companies as part of the state's oil tax system. That leaves only a change to the taxation of privately held companies like Hilcorp, the North Slope oil firm, on the Senate's docket. Even if both bills were to pass the Legislature and gain Dunleavy's approval, the combined gain to the state treasury would be the equivalent of less than $200 for the Permanent Fund dividend. On top of that, the odds of the House passing and the governor allowing both revenue bills appear low. In a March opinion column published by the Anchorage Daily News, House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, joined 15 members of the Republican House minority in opposing two of the three Senate bills. Asked why Alaskans should endure a PFD cut to avoid higher taxes on those companies, Kopp said on April 8, 'Right now, our oil and gas industry is recovering from the COVID-19 setback and we are currently on the verge of a renaissance in the energy industry. … I don't want to kill an energy renaissance when it is just forming, coming online and showing tremendous promise.' The House's majority caucus has only 21 members, meaning that Kopp's opposition would require the majority to have the support of at least one member of the House's Republican minority in order to advance one of the oil-related bills. But even if a bill were to pass the House and Senate, Dunleavy would still have to OK it. 'I told legislative leadership, I'm not interested in new taxes. I'm not interested in a program that taxes and spends, taxes and spends,' the governor told reporters during a news conference earlier this month. As an alternative to cutting the dividend and services, the Legislature could unlock the Constitutional Budget Reserve, a $2.8 billion savings account. Lawmakers are already planning to do so in order to cover a $200 million shortfall in the current year's budget. But on Tuesday, members of the Senate's majority caucus reiterated their opposition to that idea. As bad as the state's budget situation is this year, it's likely to be worse next year, said Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka and co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee. 'We're very concerned (about) any access to the CBR this year … because the concern is next year, it's highly likely we're going to need it,' he said. Between federal budget cuts and depressed oil prices, the problems that the state is facing now will be repeated next year, both Stedman and Hoffman said. That's when the Legislature will debate the budget to cover the fiscal year from July 2026 to June 2027. 'That is also an integral part of what we're having dialogue on — positioning the state for the FY27 budget a year from now, so we're not … halfway down a cliff, heading for a final stop,' Stedman said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
