Latest news with #JamesKaufman
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska Senate approves austere operating budget with $1,000 PFD ahead of House vote
May 20—JUNEAU — The Alaska Senate on Tuesday approved an austere operating budget for the next fiscal year with a $1,000 Permanent Fund dividend. Lawmakers this year have grappled with a substantial deficit and a dire fiscal outlook due largely to diminished oil revenue. When adjusted for inflation, the dividend figure set to be approved by the Legislature this year is the lowest since the program began in 1982. The House is preparing to vote later in the day on the same budget bill. Legislative leaders said that Tuesday would be the final day of the legislative session, one day before the constitutional deadline for the session to end. The Senate passed the budget after minimal debate on a 17-3 vote. All 14 members of the bipartisan majority supported the budget. Three members of the Senate Republican minority caucus voted yes — Sens. Mike Cronk, James Kaufman and Rob Yundt — and three minority members voted no: Sens. Mike Shower, Robert Myers and Shelley Hughes. Bethel Democratic Sen. Lyman Hoffman, who manages the operating budget in the Senate, said the spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 has a roughly $57 million surplus. But lawmakers have warned that surplus could quickly disappear if oil prices stay below projections. Additionally, legislators have said the state's fiscal outlook will likely be even more dire next year. The Legislature's budget would make cuts across state agencies. The Alaska Department of Corrections is set to see several reductions, including a $7.5 million cut with the intention of closing a housing unit at Spring Creek Correctional Center. Additional cuts were approved for the University of Alaska, the Alaska Psychiatric Institute and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. The House passed its draft budget in April with limited spending cuts, a $1,400 dividend and a roughly $250 million deficit. The Senate's draft spending plan was balanced with deeper spending reductions proposed and a $1,000 dividend. The lower PFD figure freed up roughly $264 million for other spending. A conference committee met in the final days of the legislative session to negotiate differences between the House and Senate budgets. That way the same budget bill can pass through both chambers and onto Gov. Mike Dunleavy's desk. The committee restored some funding that the Senate had cut from its draft budget. Just under $14 million in state funding was approved for behavioral health programs with Anchorage in the midst of a homelessness crisis. Another $14 million was approved for child care, including $7.7 million in subsidies for the sector, and $5.6 million in additional assistance for families. However, those assistance payments are contingent on a separate child care bill becoming law. The Senate on Tuesday also approved drawing close to $200 million from the state's main savings account — the $2.8 billion Constitutional Budget Reserve — to balance the budget for the current fiscal year that ends June 30. To draw from that account requires support from three-quarters of the House and Senate. The Senate easily cleared that threshold on Tuesday. Eighteen of 20 senators voted to draw from savings to balance the current fiscal year's budget. Only Hughes and Myers voted no. If that three-quarter vote fails in the House, almost $200 million would be drawn from the state's investment bank, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, and from a fund that pays college scholarships to bridge the current fiscal year's fiscal shortfall. Hoffman said the need for extra funding for the current fiscal year was partly due to a drop in oil prices. He said that virtually all of the appropriation requests in the supplemental budget came from the Dunleavy administration. Shower, the Senate minority leader, said before the vote that lawmakers had already approved the appropriations being considered last year. He spoke in support of the savings draw and said, "This is just one of those things that we have to do." This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Dunleavy Decline: a legacy that's left Alaska's students behind
An empty classroom at Juneau-Douglas High School: Kalé in Juneau, Alaska (Photo by Lisa Phu/Alaska Beacon) Gov. Mike Dunleavy's veto of the latest education funding bill, House Bill 57, following his recent veto of House Bill 69, cements the decline of Alaska's public education system as the hallmark of his administration. Dunleavy has been notably absent from debates and legislative negotiations on education. Even Sen. James Kaufman criticized his failure to advocate for his own education policy priorities. All we're left with is his record to sort though — and it speaks volumes. For more than a decade, Dunleavy has worked to undermine the foundation of our schools. Brick by brick, budget by budget, he has led a systematic campaign to weaken public education in our state. Two key inflection points brought us here: 2014: The Legislature passed legislation by then-Sen. Dunleavy allowing correspondence school funds to be used for private school tuition. This opened the door to a steady redirection of public money toward private benefit, and the shunting of millions of dollars from our public schools. 2018-2025: As governor, Dunleavy froze the base student allocation and has kept it virtually flat through threats and vetoes, effectively starving education budgets year after year as costs rose. This has placed schools under incredible financial strain, compounded by the diversion of public dollars away from public schools. The results of these policy choices are staggering: From 2014 to 2024, over $580 million in public funds were diverted from neighborhood schools through correspondence allotments. The graph below shows Alaska's annual correspondence program spending over the past two decades, charting both our estimate of the average as well as maximum per-student allotments. A sharp increase in this spending began in 2018, the same year Gov. Dunleavy started flat-funding public education. While many families choose correspondence programs to homeschool their children — a valuable option for some — the lack of oversight has allowed public funds to serve as de facto vouchers for private and religious schools. Though this practice is now under legal challenge, the data shown here reflects the decade it was permitted. Further, it is unclear what results we are getting for this investment, because only about 12% of correspondence students take standardized tests. In the graph, the blue line estimates annual state spending on correspondence allotments assuming each enrolled student received the estimated average allotment. The orange line assumes the maximum allotment per student. Together, they illustrate the range of public dollars funneled into the correspondence program with little accountability for their use. Since the 2014 policy change expanding allowable uses of correspondence allotments, fourth and eighth grade reading and math scores in Alaska's public schools have dropped, with sharper declines after Dunleavy began flat-funding public education. While many factors influence academic outcomes, this pattern raises serious concerns about the long-term impact of diverting public resources away from neighborhood schools, coupled with the erosion of buying power due to years of flat-funding education. While Dunleavy proclaims himself an education advocate, his record is one of destruction. He has bled our schools dry, then blamed the consequences — teacher shortages, ballooning class sizes, gutted programs, declining scores — on the very system he eroded. Real accountability means more than empty rhetoric — it means fulfilling your constitutional obligation to 'establish and maintain a system of public schools open to all children of the state.' It means making good on your own policy promises — like funding the Alaska Reads Act — and giving educators the tools they need to do their jobs effectively. It means compensating teachers with the wages and benefits they need to support themselves and their families. Flat funding isn't accountability. It's abandonment. After weeks of contentious debate, the Legislature passed the first education funding bill, HB 69, with 32 of 60 legislators voting in favor. Gov. Dunleavy swiftly vetoed it. After a failed override attempt, legislators then advanced HB 57, a revised education funding bill that incorporated many of the governor's own stated priorities. It passed with 48 votes. Despite its bipartisan backing and clear compromises, the governor has vetoed yet another bill and threatened an additional line-item veto in the budget, relying on the same attacks he used to justify his previous education funding vetoes both this year and last. To override the governor's veto of HB 57, it would take 40 legislators to stand with Alaska's students, educators, and communities. Blocking a line-item veto in the budget will take 45. Alaska is in crisis: underfunded schools, frozen federal support, rising costs, layoffs, and an economy driving families and young professionals out. Without sensible leadership, the exodus will only accelerate. We cannot solve this with half-measures or hollow sound bites. HB 57 adds just $700 in per-student funding to the education budget, still far behind the inflation increases districts face. In our view, we can't afford not to make this investment. To the lawmakers weighing whether to stand with the governor or with Alaska's families — this is your moment of truth. You've seen the data. You've heard from your constituents. If you continue to support the Dunleavy Decline, it will be your legacy too. If you believe in funding public education, you would vote for it, fight for it, build the coalition, and be on the right side of history. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
