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Amid a severe state budget deficit, the Alaska Senate Finance Committee is proposing the lowest Permanent Fund dividend in five years and — if adjusted for inflation — the lowest dividend ever. On May 1, the committee unveiled a new version of its proposed state operating budget with a $1,000 dividend, a $400 reduction from its first draft. That cut reduces the Senate’s budget draft by $265 million, likely balancing it once additional legislation is considered. The dividend figure is not final: The full Senate will vote on the commi...
For the third time in two years, the Alaska Legislature has approved a bill to increase long-term state funding for the state's K-12 public schools. On April 30, the state Senate voted 17-3 and the House voted 31-8 to approve House Bill 57, which would permanently increase the base student allocation, the core of the state's per-student funding formula, by $700 per student, almost 12%, at a cost to the state of $183 million for the 2025-2026 school year. The increase would send more than...
Alaska bars and liquor stores will be required to post signs warning of alcohol’s link to cancer, under a bill that became law on April 25. The new sign mandate, to go into effect on Aug. 1, makes Alaska the first U.S. state to require such health warnings specifically related to colon and breast cancers. The warnings about the alcohol-cancer relationship will be added to already mandated warnings about the dangers that pregnant women’s consumption can lead to birth defects. The requirement is part of a measure, Senate Bill 15, that allows empl...
As Alaska lawmakers confront a major budget deficit, disagreements over how to solve the problem appear likely to lead to a lower Permanent Fund dividend this fall and cuts to services, including public schools. In public statements, members of the Alaska Senate’s majority caucus have said they oppose spending from savings to balance the budget and want to see new revenue bills instead. Meanwhile, members of the state House and Gov. Mike Dunleavy have said they oppose new revenue bills and would prefer to spend from savings. Those different p...
At least 87 federally funded AmeriCorps volunteers were notified last week that their current or upcoming service work in Alaska was abruptly canceled. They include local aspiring teachers planning to tutor young Alaskans, out-of-state volunteers set to work at Girl Scout Camps in Chugiak this summer and school and parks workers in Sitka. AmeriCorps is a federal agency aimed at volunteerism that operates a network of local, state and national service programs. But last month, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency began dismantling t...
Nine AmeriCorps volunteers serving in Sitka learned on April 25 that they had to leave their jobs by the end of the day April 28. The volunteers, who had been working with the Sitka School District, Mt. Edgecumbe High School, Sitka Parks and Recreation and nonprofit organizations, were notified that their employment was ending by order of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which was closing out $400 million in AmeriCorps grants nationwide. The order terminates more than 1,000 AmeriCorps programs and 32,000 positions across the c...
As President Donald Trump marks 100 days in office, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is urging anxious Alaskans to keep protesting against his administration. During an hour-long radio program on April 29, Murkowski expressed deep concerns with Trump’s use of executive power and the priorities supported by his administration and Republicans in Congress. She mentioned the 50501 movement, which has protested against the Trump administration, including with rallies in Alaska. “I think that type of engagement is important, and people shouldn’t feel discour...
Voters in Alaska, Missouri and Nebraska were asked last year whether they wanted to require employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers. They overwhelmingly said yes. Now some lawmakers in each of those states are trying to roll back the benefits, citing concerns from businesses about costs. The efforts mark the latest attempt by legislators to alter laws backed by the voters they represent. In February, for example, Michigan enacted revisions to a paid sick leave law initiated by voters seven years ago, delaying the date when small...
The Legislature appears to have reached a deal on an education bill. The Senate passed the measure with a $700 increase in per-student funding, almost a 12% boost, on a 19-1 vote at midday Monday, April 28. The House was expected to take up the bill on Wednesday. House approval would send the bill to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for his approval or veto, though the wide margin of legislative approval indicates lawmakers could have enough votes to override a veto. House Bill 57 started three months ago as a measure to place limits on student cellphone...
The Senate Finance Committee is considering a draft of Alaska’s state operating budget that would cut more than $200 million from a version adopted earlier this month by the state House. The committee unveiled the first draft of its operating budget proposal at an April 24 meeting in the Capitol in Juneau. The committee’s version of the budget would send less state money to school districts than the House had proposed, though it appears a compromise has been reached on that number — less than the House and school districts wanted but more than...
The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s 90th annual tribal assembly voted on April 18 to give Southeast Alaska communities more representation by reducing the number allocated for larger cities such as Anchorage and Seattle. The change in representation on the tribal assembly was approved after an emotional five-hour debate at the gathering in Juneau. The change, part of Tlingit and Haida’s first constitutional convention at its assembly since 2018, makes significant shifts to a tribal delegation where Juneau and...
Legislation passed April 16 by the Alaska House of Representatives would require school districts to adopt policies that restrict the use of cellphones by students during school hours. House Bill 57, which advanced to the Senate after a 34-6 vote, does not require districts to ban students’ cellphones but does require them to regulate students’ use of phones during regular school hours, including during lunch and the time between classes. Wrangell’s middle school already bans cellphones on the premises during school hours. The high schoo...
The Alaska Senate passed legislation on April 17 that would significantly cap the interest rates and fees payday lenders can charge for loans of $25,000 or less. Senate Bill 39 would remove payday lenders from an exemption in the state’s lending laws, and require payday loan companies to cap interest rates and fees at an annual percentage rate of 36% for loans of $25,000 or less. An estimated 15,000 Alaskans take out a payday loan each year, according to research by the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group....
Members of the federal government’s ocean-mapping corps and Alaskans training for the merchant marine would continue to receive Permanent Fund dividends while away from the state, under a bill approved by the Alaska House of Representatives. House Bill 75, from Rep. Jeremy Bynum, is the first piece of legislation from a freshman lawmaker to pass either the House or Senate this year. Bynum, who was elected last year, represents Ketchikan and Wrangell. The legislation also would change state law to make the names of dividend applicants c...
Southeast Alaska’s golden king crab fishery reached an all-time high value of $5 million this year, marking an impressive recovery for a fishery that was struggling just a few years ago. The East Central management area, which includes waters around and north of Petersburg, led the record-breaking season with a harvest value of $2.97 million, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game data. The high value comes despite lower harvest volumes than last year. Fishermen landed 177,060 pounds from the East Central area this year, c...
As the Trump administration continues to cut federal spending in multiple areas, Sitka’s 4-H program has received notice that the Department of Agriculture has terminated the grant that funds about half of the 4-H budget. The 4-H Alaska Way of Life program is run by the nonprofit Sitka Conservation Society in collaboration with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, offering people ages 5 to 18 a chance to learn outdoor skills such as boating and water safety, bicycling, deer and fish butchering and berry gathering. “It’s all about teaching skill...
Thirteen years ago, Palmer farmer Scott Robb set a world record with a 138-pound cabbage he brought to the Alaska State Fair. Not long afterward, Palmer’s local visitor center dedicated a statue to the cabbage and the other colossal world-record vegetables grown in the area. Now, at the urging of a leading visitor center volunteer, a state legislator from Palmer is proposing to enshrine Alaska’s giant cabbages in state law as the official state vegetable. If adopted by the House, Senate and Gov. Mike Dunleavy, House Bill 202 would declare tha...
The federal leader of the Denali Commission said April 18 she is trying to save long-planned Alaska infrastructure projects now threatened by the Trump administration — and the life of the independent federal commission itself. Julie Kitka, who served for three decades as president of the Alaska Federation of Natives before taking on the new role in October as federal co-chair of the Denali Commission, discussed those challenges in Nome at a conference organized by that city’s government. “I have to tell you that dealing with the new feder...
Josh Chevalier says working as the chief engineer aboard the state ferry Columbia is rewarding because there's always a new problem to solve, but right now one of the challenges is finding other workers who share that enthusiasm. He was among the crew members providing members of the State Legislature insight into a day in the life of working aboard the biggest and fastest ship in the Alaska Marine Highway System fleet. "It's nice to see them come out and look at the boats and find out what we...
Along with announcing his veto of an education funding bill on April 17, Gov. Mike Dunleavy introduced new legislation with less of an increase in the state’s per-student funding formula, along with additional funding and policy items to benefit charter schools and homeschool programs. At a news conference in the state Capitol, the governor said there were two reasons for his veto. “One of the reasons is that the (state) revenue situation has deteriorated a lot” in recent months, Dunleavy said. “And the second reason for the veto is there’s...
The Alaska House of Representatives on April 16 approved a $6.2 billion draft state operating budget, putting Alaska on track for a deficit of as much as several hundred million dollars in the fiscal year that begins July 1. If the House version of the operating budget is added to the capital budget passed a day earlier by the Senate — and counting a planned supplemental budget needed to fill holes in this fiscal year’s spending plan — total general-purpose spending this legislative session would come in near $6.6 billion. The Alaska Depar...
A change to Alaska’s corporate income tax structure could add as much as $65 million a year to the state treasury by expanding the tax code to collect more from digital businesses, such as online merchants located outside the state. The Alaska Senate voted 16-4 on April 15 to approve Senate Bill 113, which changes the state’s corporate income tax code to require online merchants and other businesses pay taxes in Alaska based on their sales into the state, even if they have no employees or property in Alaska. Selling goods or services to Alaskan...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has long struggled to compete with corporate America to recruit tech workers to maintain the complicated computer systems that track the federally regulated seafood harvests off Alaska. These chronic staffing shortages at NOAA Fisheries' Alaska Region have been greatly exacerbated by the Trump administration's efforts to cut the federal workforce. As of mid-March, the Alaska Region had 29% of its staffing positions vacant, and the Information...
As Alaska legislators confront a major state budget deficit, the state Senate on April 15 voted unanimously to approve a “bare bones” $162 million capital budget to pay for construction and renovation projects across the state. The spending plan, which would take effect July 1, remains a draft subject to approval by the House. Gov. Mike Dunleavy could also veto individual items in the spending plan. The budget bill passed by the Senate is almost entirely limited to the minimum in state money needed to unlock more than $2.5 billion in fed...
At least one refugee family in Juneau has received notice from the Trump administration ordering them to leave the country immediately or face prosecution, while at least four international students at the University of Alaska Anchorage had their visas revoked, officials said April 14. Both actions mirror nationwide targeting of foreigners who were residing legally in the United States but are now being subjected to detention, arrest and deportation for reasons including expressing views the Trump administration finds disagreeable and alleged...
