• Investing
  • Stock
  • Economy
BigMoneyHall.com – Investing and Stock News
  • Editor’s Pick
  • Latest News
Latest News

AK convenes for new legislative session, faces familiar challenges this year

by January 17, 2023
by January 17, 2023

The Alaska Legislature convenes for a new session Tuesday with a bipartisan coalition controlling the Senate for the first time in over a decade, a divided House struggling to organize for the third straight term and a newly reelected Republican governor who said he’s interested in working with lawmakers and ‘problem solving.’

There is also a large freshmen class, and a list of familiar challenges: Dwindling savings. Oil prices well below heights reached last year. Unresolved questions about what size dividend should be paid to residents from Alaska’s nest-egg oil-wealth fund, the Alaska Permanent Fund.

For years, lawmakers have said resolution is needed on the dividend so they can turn greater focus to other issues affecting the state. Trying to find agreement on the dividend is a priority for incoming Senate president Gary Stevens, who is part of a 17-member caucus of nine Democrats and eight Republicans in the 20-person Senate.

Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, said there is interest, too, in delving into the issues of education funding and pension and retirement matters for teachers and other public employees. He said he was hopeful his caucus would ‘firm up’ its goals when all the members get to Juneau.

The Senate has seven new members, a group that includes Republican Cathy Giessel, a former Senate president who lost a reelection bid in 2020 and returns to the chamber after a successful campaign last year, and Republicans Kelly Merrick and James Kaufman and Democrat Matt Claman, who previously were in the House and successfully ran for the Senate last year.

The 40-person House has 19 new members, two of whom — Republicans Craig Johnson and Dan Saddler — are former representatives returning to the chamber after several years away.

In 2019 and 2021 — the start of the past two legislative cycles — it took until February for the House to elect a speaker. Caucuses don’t always neatly form along party lines in Alaska, where personalities and policy positions often factor in. Lawmakers hope to avoid a drawn-out fight this year.

The last bipartisan coalition in the Senate was in 2012. In the years following, there were Republican-led caucuses that included one or two Democrats.

Rep. Cathy Tilton, a Wasilla Republican, said she sees work on a state fiscal plan as imperative, with a revised spending limit a key piece. While lawmakers have long talked about the need for a fiscal plan to move away from yearly budgeting around the volatility of oil, they have struggled to coalesce around what a plan should include.

For example, how should the dividend be handled? Should there be new or higher taxes, and what would those be? Alaska has no statewide sales or personal income tax, and has long relied on oil.

There is a yearly application process for dividends, and residency requirements to meet. The program dates to the early 1980s.

In 2018, amid deficits, lawmakers began using permanent fund earnings traditionally used to pay dividends to also help pay for government, and they sought to limit how much is drawn each year from earnings. A longstanding formula used to calculate dividends was last used in 2015. That old formula has been seen by many lawmakers as unsustainable, but efforts to come up with a new one have faltered. Lawmakers have generally just been setting a yearly amount.

Dunleavy in his budget proposal called for a dividend in line with the old formula, which his office said would be around $3,860 a person this year. He said he will also press lawmakers to consider his proposal to pursue carbon markets as a way to generate revenue for the state.

Lawmakers last year approved paying residents $3,284, which included a dividend and a $662 one-time energy relief payment. The checks were approved when oil prices were around $115 a barrel. Recently, they have been around $80 a barrel.

A spike in oil prices last winter and spring, amid Russia’s war with Ukraine, were accompanied by rosy state revenue projections that have since been revised down.

Dunleavy, who had an at-times rocky relationship with lawmakers during his first term, said when he was sworn in last month that his goal is to ‘work with everybody to create an Alaska for the next 50 years.’

Stevens said he believes the administration is ‘willing to listen to us and work with us.’ But he said he thinks the dividend that Dunleavy has proposed is ‘not doable.’ Stevens said to maintain state services, ‘we simply cannot have a dividend that high.’

NEA-Alaska, a major teachers’ union, sees education funding as a leading topic this session. Its president, Tom Klaameyer, said the union wants to see a ‘meaningful’ increase in the state’s student funding formula.

Dunleavy, a former educator, in an interview said he’s willing to discuss school funding but said there also should be discussions around performance and outcomes.

‘I think we have to have a discussion about where we want our educational system to be,’ Dunleavy said.

Klaameyer said there is an ‘educator shortage crisis’ and that school districts are cutting programs and struggling to fill jobs or retain educators.

He also said he believes that ‘if you provide those resources for students, you provide the best educators in every profession in the schools, that you support kids, then the outcomes will come. They’ll be there.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
0 comment
0
FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

previous post
In WA, proposed bill may force menstrual tracking apps to follow privacy laws
next post
Mayor Eric Adams says NYC has ‘no more room’ for asylum seekers

Related Posts

Kemp, Jones vow to hold rogue Georgia prosecutors...

February 4, 2023

GOP renews push to arm federal judges amid...

February 4, 2023

Minnesota Gov. Walz makes Juneteenth state holiday, bans...

February 4, 2023

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt calls for investigation into...

February 4, 2023

South Dakota Republicans move to pass sweeping election...

February 4, 2023

Biden admin to brief ‘Gang of Eight’ on...

February 4, 2023

Arizona bill would allow pregnant women to drive...

February 3, 2023

Minnesota moves toward 2040 carbon neutrality goal

February 3, 2023

DC councilman calls for ‘increased police presence’ after...

February 3, 2023

FBI to search former Vice President Mike Pence’s...

February 3, 2023
Enter Your Information Below To Receive Free Trading Ideas, Latest News, And Articles.


Your information is secure and your privacy is protected. By opting in you agree to receive emails from us. Remember that you can opt-out any time, we hate spam too!

Recent Posts

  • Week Ahead: Markets Approaches Union Budget In A Bruised State; Expect Volatility To Remain High

    February 4, 2023
  • Growth Stocks Roar Into The New Year. This FAANMG Stock Is Poised To Go Higher

    February 4, 2023
  • How to Find the Market’s Strongest Stocks in Just Four Clicks!

    February 4, 2023
  • New Industry Group Golden Cross Indexes and Silver Cross Indexes

    February 4, 2023
  • MEM TV: Major Market Shift After Fed Comments

    February 4, 2023
  • Stock Market Stuck with a Plethora of Mixed Signals

    February 4, 2023

Editors’ Picks

  • 1

    Noem blocks South Dakota business with certain companies owned or controlled by ‘evil foreign governments’

    January 20, 2023
  • 2

    Democrat leadership leaves Adam Schiff hanging on call for intelligence assessment of Biden’s classified docs

    January 16, 2023
  • 3

    Group backing Ron DeSantis to spend $3.3M to make him the Republican nominee over Donald Trump in 2024: report

    January 19, 2023
  • 4

    Indiana Rep. Jim Banks launches 2024 Senate run, highlights record as ‘conservative fighter’

    January 17, 2023
  • 5

    New Mexico top prosecutor shifts focus to addressing child civil rights

    January 16, 2023
  • 6

    Ticketmaster’s day in Congress met with bipartisan ‘bad blood’ and more Taylor Swift puns from senators

    January 26, 2023
  • 7

    2023 Stock Market Forecast: Where’s the Strength?

    January 19, 2023

Categories

  • Economy (13)
  • Editor's Pick (18)
  • Investing (13)
  • Latest News (435)
  • Stock (80)

Latest News

  • White House claimed Biden’s Delaware house used for official business but now says it’s ‘personal’

    January 18, 2023
  • Self-driving cars create new opportunities for terrorist attacks, says FBI Director Chris Wray

    January 19, 2023
  • President Biden calls Republicans ‘fiscally demented’ during MLK Day speech, amid docs scandal, inflation

    January 17, 2023

Investing News

  • Biden seen holding ‘classified document’ in resurfaced 2013 photo

    January 18, 2023
  • 5 Stocks To Save The Planet

    January 21, 2023
  • Republicans’ SPR bill leaves Democrats squirming over oil leasing: ‘It’s the process of balance’

    January 25, 2023
  • About Us
  • Contacts
  • Email Whitelisting
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Disclaimer: BigMoneyHall.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

Copyright © 2023 BigMoneyHall.com. All Rights Reserved.

BigMoneyHall.com – Investing and Stock News
  • Investing
  • Stock
  • Economy
BigMoneyHall.com – Investing and Stock News
  • Editor’s Pick
  • Latest News
BigMoneyHall.com – Investing and Stock News
  • Investing
  • Stock
  • Economy
BigMoneyHall.com – Investing and Stock News
  • Editor’s Pick
  • Latest News

Disclaimer: BigMoneyHall.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

Copyright © 2023 BigMoneyHall.com. All Rights Reserved.

Read alsox

‘Class warfare’: Wealth tax the latest measure...

January 25, 2023

DOJ considered letting the FBI monitor search...

January 18, 2023

Court upholds Gov. Ron DeSantis’ suspension of...

January 20, 2023