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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...
On Friday, the borough assembly approved one of two resolutions that set the millage rate at 11.45 mills for service area one. The millage rate is the amount per $1,000 of the property's assessed value that is used to calculate taxes within the borough. The mill rate reflects a scenario where Gov. Mike Dunleavy does not veto the state legislators' 2020 fiscal year state budget and funds the state's portion of the school bond debt reimbursement. If the governor does veto the budget, the assembly...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska lawmakers have rejected Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s location of his hometown of Wasilla for a special session that starts next month. The Alaska Legislature will instead convene in Juneau on July 8 and then hold a majority of its meetings in Anchorage, House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, an independent from Dillingham, and Senate President Cathy Giessel, an Anchorage Republican, said in a joint statement. “The majority of legislators in both bodies considers it our right to determine the location and venue best equipped to co...
The borough assembly adopted the 2020 fiscal year operating budget in its third reading on Monday after making 11 amendments to it since the assembly received the proposed budget on April 1. Expenditures in the general fund total $9,467,855, but is balanced out by $9,533,511 in revenues. The total amount of excess of revenues over expenditures is $65,656. The current 2019 fiscal year budget has a total of $9,466,759 in revenues and $9,446,352 in expenditures. During the assembly meeting on...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Senate failed Monday to revive a bill that would pay residents a full dividend of about $3,000 from the state’s oil-wealth fund this year, a sign of the struggle lawmakers are having in reaching agreement on one of the special session’s last issues. Instead, senators narrowly voted to create a working group with the House to make recommendations on future use of Alaska Permanent Fund earnings. The House approved the measure Sunday. Some suggested existing committees could buckle down on the issue and quest...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska has awarded a contract to study whether the state can become the first in the nation to change its Medicaid program into a block grant system. Alaska Journal of Commerce reported Wednesday that the state Department of Health and Social Services issued a notice May 29 of its intent to award the contract to analyze the prospect of implementing block grants for federal Medicaid payments, work requirements for Medicaid enrollees, and shifting some Alaska Medicaid recipients to private insurance. The $100,000 c...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) —The Alaska Senate on Tuesday narrowly voted down a full dividend payout from the state’s oil-wealth fund this year, with a prominent supporter of the proposal absent. The 10-8 vote came after the Senate, by the same tally, adopted an amendment calling for a full payout with checks to qualified residents estimated to be around $3,000. The initial bill proposed $1,600 checks. At least 11 votes were needed for the bill to pass. Sen. Mike Shower, a Wasilla Republican who has supported a full payout, posted on Facebook Sat...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Legislature, locked in a fight with Gov. Mike Dunleavy over education funding, moved one step closer Tuesday to a lawsuit over the issue. The House and Senate voted to give the committee that handles legislative business, the Legislative Council, authority to sue. Sen. Gary Stevens, the Legislative Council chair, told reporters a lawsuit could be filed if the money for K-12 schools is not released. Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, said the council composed of House and Senate members would have to vote to move f...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — It’s crunch time for Alaska lawmakers, who face a looming deadline to complete their session and decide some of its thorniest issues. Wednesday will mark the 121st day of the regular session, the constitutional limit though a 10-day extension is allowable. Lawmakers last month blew past a 90-day voter-approved session limit, which wasn’t seen as realistic given Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget hadn’t been released until a month into session and the House didn’t organize until around the same time. Legislative...
WRANGELL — Members of the Wrangell School District and the borough assembly came together for a joint workshop on the school district’s recently adopted budget. As Superintendent Debbe Lancaster said in the past, and repeated in Monday evening’s meeting, this was a “no fat” budget that was operating very close to the district’s bare minimum. The FY 2020 budget is assuming $6.34 million in revenue, and almost the same in expenses. In comparison, this is a decrease from the FY 2019 budget whic...
WRANGELL — Lean times are ahead for the Wrangell School District, according to the budget that was adopted on April 30. Funding for the district has been a topic of much concern ever since Governor Mike Dunleavy released his proposals for the state budget. One of his proposals was a major cut to the Base Student Allocation, a program that gives schools money for every student in their district. It has been very challenging to prepare a budget for the new school year without knowing for sure w...
