Photo of the Month Ketchikan: Public Meetings Ketchikan: Upcoming Events Historical Ketchikan June Allen Dave Kiffer Louise B. Harrington Ketchikan Weather Ketchikan's Forecast Ketchikan's Historic Weather Nat Weather Service KTN Ketchikan Tides & Currents Search the News Ketchikan Alaska Sitnews RSS widget

Alaska: Senate Passes Bill to Limit Government Spending; Takes Annual Draw from Permanent Fund By MARY KAUFFMAN - Senate Bill 26, the Republican plan to restructure and reduce the Permanent Fund passed the Alaska Senate with a vote of 12 to 8 Wednesday. The Alaska Senate Majority passed what they are calling major components of a solution to Alaska’s fiscal challenge. Senate Bill 26 will limit government spending and will take an annual draw from the Permanent Fund’s earnings to help pay for a smaller government and maintain a dividend.

“This bill protects and grows the corpus of the Permanent Fund and protects the dividend,” said Sen. Anna MacKinnon (R-Eagle River), co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee. “It uses the earnings as they were intended to be used at the creation of the Permanent Fund, to provide for the people of Alaska when oil revenue no longer could.”

In a prepared statement, Governor Bill Walker said, "The Senate showed great leadership [Wednesday] in passing the Permanent Fund Protection Act. I thank members of the Senate for once again taking a significant step toward building a more stable future for Alaska. Their courageous actions show we are making progress toward a complete solution. I look forward to working with legislators in both chambers to reach the finish line on fixing Alaska."

The bill protects the Permanent Fund for generations by establishing a sustainable percent of market value (POMV) draw to help pay for essential services and guarantees a $1,000 dividend for the next three years. After that, the dividend will be based on a percentage of fund earnings, allowing for modest dividend growth.

“If we do not take action the dividend will go away,” Sen. Hoffman (D-Bethel), co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee. “Inaction is not an option. We need to take the next step to address the fiscal cliff that the State of Alaska is facing today.”

The Alaska Senate Democratic caucus, and several members of the Republican caucus voted No on Senate Bill 26, but it was not enough to stop the bill from advancing to the Alaska House.

According to a public FaceBook statement by the Alaska Senate Democratic Caucus, "This bill is NOT a fiscal plan, and does not address any revenue generating measures to fill the fiscal gap. It only cuts in ways that economists have called the most regressive, and the most hurtful to average Alaskans and the economy. It also takes away critical language which mandates that money for the Permanent Fund Dividend is appropriated AT ALL. That means there is nothing keeping the legislature from voting the dividend away. As Senator Berta Gardner said, "It's disappointing, but not surprising.""

If oil revenue increases in the future, Senate Bill 26 provides a mechanism to return excess funds to the Permanent Fund, growing the corpus of the fund and future dividends, according to an Alaska Senate Majority news release.

“Our fiscal solution cuts spending, limits the growth of government and uses the tools we already have,” said Sen. Pete Kelly (R-Fairbanks), President of the Alaska Senate. “A responsible Permanent Fund draw, along with strategic use of our Constitutional Budget Reserve, will resolve our budget problems while protecting Alaska’s private sector. That’s more important than ever as we weather this recession.”

Quoting a news release from the Alaska Senate Majority, the SB 26 satisfies the Alaska Department of Revenue’s principles for restructuring the Permanent Fund. The bill implements a rule-based framework, stabilizes the budget, protects both the Permanent Fund and the dividend, and maximizes the use of the earnings reserve.

The Senate Majority's target is a $750 million reduction in undesignated general fund spending over the next three years, starting with a goal of $300 million in reductions this year.

With prudent use of the Constitutional Budget Reserve as the third-in-line state funding source, after oil revenue and after the Permanent Fund earnings draw, the Senate Majority's solution would be to maintain a $5 billion balance in the Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR) with the expectation that under this plan, the CBR would start to grow again within five years.

SB 26 places a spending cap of $4.1 billion to limit future budget growth which will be adjusted annually to allow reasonable budget growth with inflation. Not included under the spending cap are dividend payments; debt payments; and future capital projects. - More...
Thursday AM - March 16, 2017

Alaska: How to conserve polar bears under climate change and maintain subsistence harvest - Polar bears are listed as a threatened species as the ice-covered ocean they depend on for hunting and transportation becomes scarce. Changes in the Arctic Ocean are also affecting the humans who have called this area home and hunted across the landscape for thousands of years.

Polar Bear on shore.
Photo Credit: Eric V. Regehr(USFWS)

Research from the University of Washington, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey investigates what these changes could mean for subsistence harvest of polar bears -- a practice that has cultural, nutritional and economic importance to many Northern communities.

An open-access study published this month in the Journal of Applied Ecology addresses this question using an improved model of how polar bear populations function.

"A big question in polar bear conservation is: How will habitat loss and harvest interact to affect the status of polar bear populations?" said lead author Eric Regehr, a researcher with the UW's Applied Physics Laboratory who did the work as a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

COLUMNS - COMMENTARY

This often seems to happen to me. Primarily because I am not smart enough to have a smart phone on my person at all times to distract me in such dire situations

One time I was sitting in a restaurant waiting for a companion to arrive. It was a rare occurrence because in my pocket was my cell phone. I don't normally take it out with me. It is generally bad company, if no other reason than it doesn't respond calmly like Siri when I shout at it for not working correctly.

It's one of those flippy phones where all it does it actually make and receive phone calls. That's it.

Quelle horreur!!

How "last millennium" of me.

If I am bored the best it will do is let me call time and temperature, so I can argue with the computer voice that is always two or three minutes fast and is reading a thermometer that is not close enough to the computer's cooling fan. - More...
Thursday AM - March 16, 2017

JOSEPH CATTO: How a 1960 Paul Newman Film is Relevant to the Refugee Crisis - 'Exodus' was on television the other day. Not having received much sleep the night before, and functionally awake only through the grace of caffeine, I half-expected to shut my eyes midway through the picture.

It is a long one, after all; with commercials, four hours. Unless a movie is of superior quality, something with such a running time rarely appears on the small screen.

Fortunately, I did not nod off, and ended up watching 'Exodus' from beginning to end. What a powerful piece of cinema. It provides much to think about in our age of refugee rancor; from the no-man's lands of Syria to the barrios of Cuba, where millions undoubtedly shake with anger over the cancellation of 'wet foot, dry foot.'

For those who have not seen 'Exodus' or forgot what it is about, the movie chronicles revolution in British Palestine -- how this impacted colonial Protestants, recently-arrived Jews, and generations-resident Muslims. Paul Newman plays the leading role: a Palestinian-born Jewish nationalist who, though having served in His Majesty's military, becomes increasingly hostile toward Crown administration in what he yearns to be globally-recognized as Israel.

Eva Marie Saint portrays an expatriate American nurse who, while being initially uncomfortable around Holocaust-ravaged Jewish refugees, comes to identify with their plight; risking her life to assist them in securing a permanent home in the Holy Land.

The premise of 'Exodus' is based in a World War I-era promise the British government made: Its Palestinian territory would be revamped into a haven for Jews the world over. Britain made this assurance amid a pinch for money and manpower -- things much of European Jewry could well provide. - More...
Thursday AM = March 16, 2017