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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska’s governor is seeking to tighten the rules for food stamp recipients. The Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday that Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration wants to implement federal work requirements for low-income adults who receive food assistance. The change would affect recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in a state that has long had a waiver from work or employment program requirements. The Republican governor’s spokesman says the administration wants the change in order “to com...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Mike Dunleavy says he will not veto funding for Head Start and other early childhood learning programs from the budget recently sent to him by lawmakers. Dunleavy in June vetoed about $8.8 million for early childhood programs, including about $6.8 million for Head Start. Lawmakers, unable to override those and other vetoes, instead passed legislation restoring much of the vetoed funds. Dunleavy’s office has said he considers much of the budget settled but is willing to look at allowing funding to go forward for cer...
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) — The newly appointed director of Kodiak College has resigned due to budget cuts to Alaska’s public universities, officials said. Jessica Paugh informed the college pn July 31 that she would not fill the post because of the state funding reduction, The Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Wednesday. Paugh was selected in May after a months-long search and was scheduled to begin her appointment Aug. 12 at the college, which is an extension of the University of Alaska Anchorage. “I have spent days agonizing over this decision and,...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The special Alaska legislative session that began cloaked in drama is ending quietly. Tuesday marks the 30-day session limit. No floor sessions were planned to mark the official end, which comes more than a week after lawmakers finished their work on issues Gov. Mike Dunleavy asked them to consider. The Legislature approved restoring much of the operating budget money Dunleavy vetoed. The level of support needed for that was far less than what was needed to override the vetoes, which lawmakers failed to do amid a d... Full story
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - A program that monitors Alaska's cruise ships could be restructured by the governor's administration, officials said. The future remains uncertain for the Ocean Rangers program, CoastAlaska reported Thursday. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed line items equaling $444 million in reductions to Alaska's operating budget in June. The cuts included the Ocean Rangers budget. The state Legislature restored the program's $3.4 million in passenger fee funding, but another veto...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska has extended a no-bid contract awarded to a relative of a major financial supporter of the governor. The Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday that the one-year contract extension was given July 1 to Clark Penney for economic development consulting services for the administration of Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The 34-year-old owns Penney Capital Inc., which the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority pays $8,000 monthly, with a monthly travel allowance. Clark Penney’s grandfather, Bob Penney, con...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) —State health department officials want to take another look at options for running Alaska’s state-owned psychiatric facility, including privatization. The request for proposals was released Monday, the same day Gov. Mike Dunleavy and department officials touted progress at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute. The state Department of Health and Social Services has been under contract with Wellpath Recovery Solutions to stabilize the facility and take steps to bring it to full operation. The contract is set to run through 201...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The governor of Alaska is moving ahead with a plan to increase in prices at assisted living homes, a report said. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed increasing Alaska Pioneer Home rates between 40% and 140% by Sept. 1, The Anchorage Daily News reported Friday. The Dunleavy administration submitted the proposal to offset the state budget’s $12.3 million cut to funding for the homes, state officials said. There are currently three levels of service ranging from about $2,500 a month to $6,800 a month depending on the lev...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The first strike by Alaska ferry workers in over 40 years has snarled travel plans for thousands of people during the busy tourist and fishing season, leaving some stranded and catching the attention of a Democratic presidential candidate. Members of the Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific went on strike Wednesday after failing to reach agreement with the state on contract terms, bringing Alaska's ferry system to a halt. State transportation Commissioner John MacKinnon...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Legislature on Monday approved a roughly $1,600 oil-wealth fund dividend to residents this year as part of a measure that also seeks to reverse many of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s operating budget vetoes. The legislation now goes to Dunleavy, who called it “a dark day for the PFD and for Alaskans who support the PFD and for those that are looking at a sustainable budget. These add-backs take us in the other direction.” PFD refers to the Permanent Fund dividend, which is traditionally paid annually with earnings of the...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The University of Alaska has taken its first steps toward consolidating its three accredited campuses into a single entity. Facing severe budget cuts as a result of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto pen, the UA Board of Regents voted Tuesday to authorize President Jim Johnsen to immediately reduce administrative costs and prepare a plan for a transition to a single institution. Johnsen painted a dire financial picture for the university and said delaying a decision would compound the size of the cuts to be made later this yea...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) —Alaska’s Head Start early childhood education program is preparing to close pre-K classrooms and cut jobs after budget vetoes, officials said. The program lost its $6.8 million in state funding, which is used to unlock federal funds, when Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy last month vetoed line items equaling $444 million in cuts to the state operating budget, The Anchorage Daily News reported Friday. The federal program is Alaska’s largest provider of early childhood services, offering free pre-K, meals, medical care and o...
Juneau, Alaska (AP) - A spokesman for a union representing workers for the Alaska ferry system says the union has gone on strike. Hundreds of ferry workers went on strike Wednesday after failing to reach agreement on a contract with state negotiators. Robb Arnold, a spokesman for Alaska's Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific, said the strike began Wednesday afternoon after a meeting with state officials did not yield an agreement. He said the union remains open to a deal. "Unfortunately, we had...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska House failed by one vote Monday to win sufficient support to use reserve funds to help pay for a state infrastructure budget. The vote came on reconsideration, after a similar vote failed Sunday. Lawmakers still could try to revive the measure for another vote later. The measure previously passed the Senate. “We are not giving up hope,” House Speaker Bryce Edgmon said in a statement. “We thank everyone who voted for the capital budget and for the growing commitment to find compromise on this issue and the man...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — State budget cuts have University of Alaska officials anticipating the possibility of program and staff reductions, while Anchorage’s largest homeless shelter will cut its hours and services, reports said. The university Board of Regents will decide Monday whether to take the uncommon step of declaring “financial exigency,” The Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday. The declaration will allow university officials to more quickly discontinue programs and academic units and remove tenured faculty across the system....
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Legislature failed Wednesday to override budget vetoes by Gov. Mike Dunleavy that will prompt a massive 41% cut of state funding to the University of Alaska and lay waste to other programs the governor deemed unaffordable. More than one-third of lawmakers missed the vote — many because of an ongoing dispute about where the Legislature should have met for the special session. Lawmakers needed 45 votes — a three-fourths majority of the 60 members of the state Senate and House — to override the vetoes by Dunl...
JUNEAU – On Wed., July 17, Gov. Mike Dunleavy amended his call for the Second Special Session to include the unfinished capital budget appropriations bill and to change the session location from Wasilla to Juneau. Lawmakers will gather in the Alaska State Capitol on Thurs., July 18, to begin working on the expanded agenda and to continue working on the many pressing issues facing our state. “Legislative leaders from all four caucuses are meeting frequently with the governor. We have identified areas of alignment and found a productive next ste...
Fisheries fare better than most people in terms of Governor Mike Dunleavy’s budget cuts. Just under one million dollars was cut from the commercial fisheries division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, leaving it with an $85 million budget, half from state general funds. “To give the governor credit, he recognized the return on investment,” said Doug Vincent-Lang, ADF&G Commissioner. “It’s a theme I had all the way through the legislature that we take a $200 million budget of which about $50 million is unrestricted general funds and...
Cars were driving by honking and rock 'n' roll music was playing as nearly 100 residents gathered in front of the Petersburg Courthouse on Tuesday at 12 P.M. to protest Gov. Mike Dunleavy's 182 vetoes. Protestors were carrying signs that read "override," and "save our state." They were also signing their names on a piece of canvass that had the letters S.O.S. on it. One of the organizers, Chelsea Tremblay, said that the canvass will be sent to legislators to show that they have the support of...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The message on the front page of Alaska's second-largest newspaper was unmistakable. A nearly 2-inch (5-centimeter) headline, outlined in red, in Monday's edition of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner contained a single word: OVERRIDE. It appeared over a full-page editorial calling for state lawmakers to "save Alaska" from severe budget vetoes by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the likely economic devastation that would follow. Emotions are running high ahead of a joint legislative s...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Budget vetoes of $444 million by Alaska’s governor could cause widespread job losses, economists said. Analysts and business leaders predict lost jobs are only one of the consequences of Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavey’s vetoes, The Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday. Losses from the vetoes would be roughly between 4,500 and 7,000 jobs, according to an analysis by the University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research. Higher local property taxes could also result from the 182 line-item vetoe...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — One of the most powerful Republicans in the Alaska Senate is bucking the Senate president’s call to meet in Juneau on Monday, as legislative factions barrel toward trying to hold special sessions in two different cities, hundreds of miles apart. Senate Majority Leader Mia Costello, in an opinion piece published by her hometown Anchorage Daily News, said Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a legitimate call for lawmakers to convene in Wasilla and she will heed that call. “It doesn’t matter how we feel about the governo...
One fisheries item that appears to have escaped Governor Mike Dunleavy’s veto pen so far is his desire to divert local fish taxes from coastal communities into state coffers. Dunleavy’s initial budget in February aimed to repeal the sharing of fisheries business and landing taxes that towns and boroughs split 50/50 with the state. Instead, all of the tax revenues would go to the state’s general fund – a loss of $28 million in FY 2020 to fishing communities. “There is a recognition that these are viewed as shared resources, and they should be...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly will be holding an assembly meeting on Thursday at 10 A.M. to discuss and possibly pass a resolution setting a supplemental millage rate for the 2020 fiscal year that began on July 1. The millage rate is the amount per $1,000 of a property's assessed value that is used to calculate taxes within the borough. The meeting was originally supposed to be held on Friday, but it was cancelled due to a lack of quorum. The next meeting wasn't going to be until July 18, but...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Mike Dunleavy slashed the University of Alaska system budget by $130 million on Friday, part of more than $400 million in vetoes he characterized as difficult but necessary amid an ongoing state deficit. Critics called the cuts disappointing and dangerous for an economy that’s shown bright spots after a prolonged recession. Dunleavy, a Republican, also cut state support for public broadcasting, reduced spending for Medicaid and eliminated a program that provides mon...
