Where they left things
Some are actually kinda close to becoming a reality. Others are the fiscal plan.
Happy Friday, Alaska.
In this edition: The Alaska Legislature barely made it out of town last week, leaving behind almost every big-ticket bill that has dominated much of the attention this session. So in this edition, let’s break down what happened to them, where they stand, and the chances that something will happen next session. Also, some weekend watching.
Current mood: 🤔
Matt Acuña Buxton
Where they left things: Education funding
Easily the most important topic of the session, a permanent increase in education funding has been the subject of many hours of legislative hearings, several rallies, many public hearings and one legislative walk-out. Alaska’s habit of essentially flat-funding education is finally catching up as both a windfall of expiring covid-19 money and a one-time boost of state funding are expiring, revealing just how much inflation has eaten away at schools’ buying power.
To be clear, while additional education funding always seems to make it onto legislative wishlists, this year’s situation was particularly dire. The funding falloff wasn’t about building up or investing in schools but averting the worst cuts as schools hit their fiscal cliffs. It seemed like there was a broad bipartisan understanding of the fundamental problem created by failing to keep up with inflation and other costs, as well as the general benefit of giving schools something to count on. However, as these sorts of things go, there wasn’t much agreement on the details and specifics.
The Senate passed an increase to the base student allocation, but the Republican-led House wasn’t so jazzed about the plan. Its far-right conservative core has long been antagonistic about school funding, with several members doubting the need for an increase in the first place. Instead, that conservative core has pushed to delay such an increase, arguing that the far-right culture wars and private school vouchers required their immediate attention.
What we ended up with: Yet another one-time increase in school funding, albeit the largest one-time increase in state funding in state history at an equivalent to a $680 increase to the base student allocation. It’s not a BSA increase, but it will be paid out like one. The precise amount each district receives is based on the foundation formula, but the figure was specifically based on the needs of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and some schools are expected to be forced to make cuts.
Despite there being broad support, the House Majority successfully quashed any last-minute hopes that a permanent increase would advance this year.
Where they left things: Things got particularly interesting in the final hours of the legislative session when we saw the House Majority’s members on the House Finance Committee fracture over a permanent increase to BSA. What happened was Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans all teamed up to put a permanent increase to the BSA into a Senate bill dealing with internet broadband upgrades. That prompted a visit from House Speaker Cathy Tilton and Rules Chair Craig Johnson that effectively delayed the bill a day, sidestepping the inevitable infighting such a measure would cause.
However, that means the education turducken bill is a step away from a vote on the House floor. There was quite a bit of pressure for the House leadership to advance it on the final day, but it was the House leadership that was hoping to slow the bill in the first place. Further challenges will likely be placed in front of the bill, but it’s close to becoming a reality.
Retirement benefits
The state of Alaska’s retirement system has been an issue for public employees since pretty much the moment the state switched to its current plan, which offers state employees a poof-and-it’s-gone-with-the-stock-market 401k-style retirement with the added benefit of being opted out of Social Security. A few people may be doing OK under the system, but a vast majority of state employees aren’t on pace to achieve what has typically been the one main perk of public employment—a dependable retirement. As a result, it’s been blamed for an ongoing exodus of state employees and costly headaches around recruitment and retention.
While such legislation has long been on the back burner, it got renewed energy this year with the labor-friendly Senate supermajority and a new champion in Anchorage Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel. It’s not a particularly generous plan by any means and would leave state retirees with gaps in health care coverage while in retirement. However, it’s still seen by most as a vast improvement over the status quo, and it’s the proposal with the most energy behind it in my time covering the Legislature.
But all the analysis and presentations of benefits haven’t done much to change the most skeptical of minds.
Where it stands: On the opposite side of Sen. Bert Stedman, the powerful Senate Finance Committee co-chair who has held the legislation in the committee with many pointed questions and requests for additional modeling. While it could be argued that Sen. Stedman’s doing his due diligence, it’s hard not to get the feeling that he’s not particularly interested in exposing the state to any additional risk (thereby leaving the risk with the public employees) that even the most conservative of defined benefits plans would come with. A bill in the House offering pensions to public safety employees has been stuffed away in a subcommittee, where leadership has promised it will get an earnest look (still waiting on that one).
It’s all an uphill challenge, but if anyone’s up to the job, it’s probably Sen. Giessel.
The Alaska Memo by Matt Buxton is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
A fiscal plan
There’s been a lot of talk this session about the need for a fiscal plan and the need to talk about the need for a fiscal plan, but with some very few exceptions, there’s not been a lot of talk about what a fiscal plan would actually entail. We all know that in broad terms, a fiscal plan must set the state’s spending on a similar course as its revenue (hopefully with some room for comfort). That’ll require a combination of changes to the PFD, new taxes and spending cuts. Just how those interests balance is the Alaska Permanent Fund-sized question, but if this year is anything to go by, it looks like the PFD is on the losing end of things when push comes to shove, and there’s not enough revenue to go around.
If the Legislature has formulated anything close to a policy on the dividend, it’s essentially whatever is left over. Last year’s big dividend was the result of a windfall in oil revenue, and this year’s $1,300 dividend is the result of the drop in oil revenue.
When there’s the money, there will be the votes for the dividend. However, when the dividend would require a draw out of savings or cuts, there aren’t the votes needed.
The question, really, moving ahead is whether there are votes for new taxes to pay for a dividend. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has sorta kinda suggested a sales tax could be on the table, and previous officials have also made nods toward changes to the state’s oil tax system, which the Senate is currently contemplating.
Where it stands: Word is the governor is considering a special session on the fiscal plan for some time in October. However, it’s not garnered a whole lot of optimism yet, as the governor has a knack for not really following through on anything that’s politically uncomfortable or challenging.
Matt Acuña Buxton
Quick hits
- House Bill 99, the LGBTQ anti-discrimination measure, landed in what will be the toughest challenge on its path through the Alaska Legislature when it landed in the House Judiciary Committee. Still, it’s progressed further through the process than pretty much any other attempt at updating the state’s anti-discrimination laws after advancing out of the House Labor and Commerce and Community and Regional Affairs committees. A motion to discharge it from the committee failed in the final days of the session on a 22-18 vote.
- House Bill 105, the governor’s Don’t Say Gay bill drew much attention over several hearings and eventually left the House Education Committee in an even more bizarre format. Instead of barring teachers from talking about sex and gender without explicit written parental approval, the new bill would bar teachers from talking about anything without explicit written parental approval. Parental rights taken to the logical extreme, the legislation would require parents to sign off on all courses. The bill’s a nightmare and dead in the Senate if it can ever get out of the House (questionable).
- House Bill 4, the legislation to repeal ranked-choice voting, gained a whole bunch of momentum right at the end of session. It should be stressed that the momentum was solely seen within committees controlled by or closely aligned with far-right bill sponsor Rep. Sarah Vance. The Senate says it has zero interest in touching the legislation or repealing ranked-choice voting, so it’s not likely to go anywhere.
- Senate Bill 138, a far more moderate approach to elections that would do stuff like make the state’s ballot signature system actually mean anything and create a ballot curing process, made some last-minute moves in the Senate before falling short of reaching a floor vote in the busy final days of the session.
One last thing?
Have another bill or topic that you’re curious about? Send me an email and I’ll try to cover it in a future write-up: matt@akmemo.com.
The Alaska Memo by Matt Buxton is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Weekend watching
A video of Hank Green ranking the press coverage of his cancer announcement is much funnier than it probably should be.
Have a nice weekend, y’all.
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