Who will bag our groceries?

Good morning, Alaska! It’s Day 22 of the 32nd Legislature. An emergency declaration has been issued for Tuluksak, the vaccine disinformation train keeps rolling, the governor keeps losing in court and the House is still unorganized.

The Senate Labor and Commerce Committee heard Sen. Tom Begich’s Senate Bill 10 on Monday, legislation that would create a free and reduced tuition program for essential workers who’ve been putting their health and safety on the line to keep things running during the pandemic. The program proposes tuition grants for university and vocational education for anyone who was working in these essential positions—childcare, grocery store workers, delivery drivers, nursing home personnel, and many others—when the pandemic began and continued to work throughout.Other states have implemented similar programs and Begich told the committee that he sees it as a way to both reward essential workers and provide them with the opportunity to access options for career development. He noted that many low-wage essential workers have felt the brunt of the long-term economic pain and are unemployed at a far higher rate than high-wage workers.

“Why that matters is you can’t have opportunity if you’re never given the chance for it. This covid epidemic had a disproportionate impact on those least able to carve a path for their future,” he said.

The cost estimate on the bill ranges from about $2.3 million a year down to about $150,000 a year depending on how many people take advantage of it. The bill was popular in the committee and advanced out, a notable development for any minority-backed legislation, but not before some head-turning comments from Committee chair Sen. Mia Costello, R-Anchorage. Costello, who's been one of the legislators opposed to extending the governor’s disaster declaration through September, was particularly concerned about grocery store workers.

“One that sticks out is the grocery store worker,” she said. “This list of essential workers, if they then enroll in school they won’t be able to perform those duties. I’m curious about the intention of this legislation. Was it to reward people we’ve been relying on to get us through this unprecedented period in our history or is it to provide them further education to go back to the position that they have and add value to it or move forward based on the experience that they have.” 

Begich said it’s both and that what employees do with their education is largely up to them. That it’s about providing opportunity, not dictating what people do with their opportunity. He also noted that many people in school work two jobs and might even stay on the job for a year or two after graduation while they figure out a direction in life, which he said is what he did.

But Costello returned to the point later in the meeting, making clear her concerns that giving people an opportunity to further their education would undercut the state’s grocery store workforce.

“I keep coming back to the fact that if they have an opportunity to go to school they’ll leave their position,” she said, “Have you talked to any grocery store managers in Anchorage or in the state about how this bill might impact their workforce?” 

While Begich offered a fair response that many people would probably continue to work both jobs and that the bill is about providing them with opportunity if they choose to take it, it did not go over quite so well with those listening. I got several direct messages about it from people appalled by Costello’s question, which seemed to suggest that raising people up by granting them new opportunities has a downside. My tweet got a whopping 30 quote tweets with lines like:

• God forbid the serfs try to rise above their current position.

• “If you give people increased access to higher education, who will do the menial work for me?” is one helluva a bad take, especially from Costello, who received degrees from Harvard & UAS and worked as a teacher.

• This is not okay.

• She would have enjoyed the Middle Ages when serfs weren’t allowed to leave the estate.

• How dare someone work at a grocery store and want to improve their lives?!

• Good point. There is a finite supply of grocery store workers in the world and the stores have no tools to induce new people to fill the empty jobs.

• And, of course, Lucille Bluth’s side-eye:

  

Why it matters: The bill still advanced from committee and there is no opposition agains the measure at this point—including from our grocery store managers—so the direct impact of this question is minimal. Still, questions like this do go a long way to explaining how legislators see the world.

On the agenda

Tuesday

9 Senate Finance — SB49/51 The operating and mental health budgets. An update on CARES Act funding, which the state has been using to cover some of the upcoming deficit much to the chagrin of senators wanting a clear-eyed look at the budget.

1:30 Senate Health and Social Services — SB 56, the disaster declaration bill. Continued public testimony after the committee had planned to wrap it up last week.

3:30 Senate State Affairs — SB 53, permanent fund advisory vote; SJR 6 constitutional amendment for the PFD by Dunleavy; SJR 1 constitutional amendment for the PFD by Sen. Wielechowski; SB 39 voter suppression under the guise of election security by Sen. Shower.

From around the web

• After a public pressure campaign, Gov. Mike Dunleavy has formally announced a disaster declaration for Tuluksak, which has been without access to clean drinking water for three and a half weeks following a fire that destroyed the village’s only source. The move frees up $1 million of emergency funding that the state says it’ll be using to reimburse the groups that have already stepped up to help the community like the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation, which according to KYUK radio, has been picking up the tab for the initial infrastructure construction for the village. From KYUK: 3.5 Weeks After Tuluksak Fire, Dunleavy Issues Disaster Declaration
• The road-system town of Nenana was temporarily without water on Monday after a garage door malfunction at its city plant at -36 degree temperatures resulted in more than a dozen pipe breaks. They got their water back on yesterday afternoon and are under a boil water notice until further notice. From Nenana’s Facebook page: Boil water notice in effect
• In addition to the regular slate of vaccine misinformation, the Senate Judiciary Committee held its confirmation hearing for Judicial Council nominee Kristie Babcock, wife of former Dunleavy chief of staff Tuckerman Babcock. I wasn’t able to track this meeting live but heard she got rave reviews from the far-right conservatives who see her appointment has a way to pull the judiciary into more conservative territory. Columnist Dermot Cole has been tracking the confirmation and writes about his concerns here: Tuckerman Babcock's wife doesn't belong on Alaska Judicial Council
• The Dunleavy administration’s losing track record in the courts has become a bit of a running joke (perhaps reason for the attention in the above item) after losing legally tenuous case after legally tenuous case. One of the administration’s earliest tenuous legal efforts was a shot at unions where disgraced now-former Attorney General Kevin Clarkson argued that Janus v. AFSCME meant the state could further undercut unions and meddle with dues collection. In a case that was/is clearly intended to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, the administration hired Trump attorneys at $600/hour over the Legislature’s objections—amounting to a roughly $600,000 bill. On Monday, an Anchorage Supreme Court justice ruled against the state, awarding the Alaska State Employees Association $186,000 in damages and issuing a permanent injunction against the state’s anti-union efforts. This also comes as the administration is seeking an additional $4 million for legal contracting. More from the Anchorage Daily News: Judge: Alaska violated state employee contracts by trying to change union-dues rules