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Alaska: Do We Have To Go Broke Before We Fix Alaska? Gov. Walker Asks the Legislature By MARY KAUFFMAN - During a press conference last Wednesday, Governor Bill Walker (I) accused Alaska Legislators of not accepting their responsibilities in addressing the difficult fiscal challenges facing Alaska.

Governor Walker askes the Legislators,
“Do we have to go broke before we fix Alaska?”
Photo from press conference video.

The Governor said he hears a lot of discussions about these difficult fiscal decisions, and yes they may be difficult but they are fiscally responsible. “That’s why we are elected, to come and make these difficult decisions,” Walker said.

”I’ve hear lots of discussions about ‘let’s get through this next election’” Walker said. It is time for legislators to stop taking about the next election and re-election and do what’s best for Alaska right now said the Governor. “Alaskans will embrace that kind of leadership,” said Walker. What ever it takes to get the job done is what has made Alaska a great state, difficult decisions have been made before and we need to do it again said Walker.

To those Legislators who say “Le’s start over fresh next year” - Walker said legislators said that last year and “here we are this year and here we will be next year”.

Governor Walker askes the Legislators, “Do we have to go broke before we fix Alaska?”

Last Tuesday, the Alaska State Legislature passed HB 256, the Alaska statewide operating budget; HB 257, the mental health operating budget; and SB 138, the capital budget. After a conference committee appointed to address discrepancies in the House and Senate versions of the operating budget bills closed negotiations late Tuesday night, the bodies passed a fully funded budget Tuesday afternoon, achieving $418 million in budget reductions for FY 2017. In addition to the $777 million in reductions achieved in last year’s operating budget, the 29th Alaska State Legislature announced they reduced the budget by $1.2 billion over two years.

Pink-slip notices will not go out as a result of what took place Tuesday. Walker said this is a good thing but a long way from being over and a single step in a journey that began over a year ago to put Alaska on a sustainable budget going forward. It’s a little unusual doing it the way said the Governor but it’s been done — doing the budget first, then addressing how you are going to fund the budget but that’s the way the Legislature chose to do so we will accommodate accordingly.

As of last Wednesday, there were 21 more working days for this special session and the Governor said he will continue advocating for his sustainable budget plan for Alaska.

The Governor said, “We can’t continue with business as usual. Last year, we did the exact same thing, reached into the savings account and pull out about $4 billion and we did the same this year of about $3 - 3.5 billion. That is not the answer.”

Addressing comments that the Governor and his administration have not engaged enough with Alaskans nor engaged enough with the Legislature the Governor said he was "offended" by these comments because he has watched his team travel the state, thousands of miles to sit down with community after community, with Legislative group after group to present the plan. If someone doesn’t understand the plan at this point or a legislator feels we haven’t done enough, the Governor said they have not paid enough attention. Walker’s Administration fiscal plan engagement noted 400+ meetings with Legislators, 120+ Legislative Hearings, and 65+ Town Hall meetings with Alaskans. - More...
Monday PM - June 06, 2016

Alaska: New Version of HB 247 Will Cost Alaska Hundreds of Millions of Dollars - Today, the Conference Committee created to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of House Bill 247 advanced a new version that the Alaska Independent Democratic Coalition said just continues unsustainable subsidies to the oil and gas industry that will cost Alaska hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The only member of the Minority on the Conference Committee is Representative Geran Tarr (D-Anchorage). She objected to the new version of HB 247 and voted no on advancing the bill out of the committee.

“The people of Alaska will consider this Special Session a failure if we don’t address this unsustainable credit system for the North Slope, which is one of the most expensive components of the system of subsidizing the oil industry in Alaska. The Conference Committee version of the bill does not do that, so I was a no vote. I want a strong and vibrant oil and gas industry in Alaska, but paying out more in tax credits than we receive in production taxes is just a bad business deal for the people we are elected to represent,” said Rep. Tarr. “Additionally, the public was left out of the process because the meeting was noticed late Sunday for an 8:00 a.m. Monday meeting.”

HB 247 was originally put forward by Alaska Governor Bill Walker and his version of the bill would have offset Alaska’s fiscal gap by approximately $500 million. The bill was dramatically changed through the Republican-controlled committee process in the House and Senate to strip away nearly all savings and continue the unsustainable oil industry subsidies. Eventually, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House and Senate came together to pass a version of HB 247 that would protect Alaska from being overwhelmed by these tax credits, incentives, and subsidies for the oil industry. However, the Senate Majority promptly gutted that version of the bill in favor of continuing the unsustainable oil tax credit system. The Republican-controlled HB 247 Conference Committee waited until day 15 of the Special Session to meet and in the span of one meeting that lasted just over an hour, they forwarded a new version of HB 247 largely similar to the Senate version of the bill. - More...
Monday PM - June 06, 2016

Alaska: HB 374 stabilizes health insurance rates - Members of the 29th Alaska Legislature were thanked by Governor Bill Walker for their near-unanimous support Saturday of HB 374, which the governor introduced to ensure Alaskans do not have to pay more in health insurance premiums.

“Over the past two years, my team and I have received hundreds of calls and emails from Alaskans who say health care costs are increasingly unaffordable,” Governor Walker said. “This legislation will provide relief from substantial premium increases for 23,000 Alaskans who are insured through the private marketplace as we continue work to bring more insurers into Alaska.”

In the past two years, insurance premiums in the individual market have increased almost 80 percent—the equivalent of an additional mortgage for many families. Three health care insurers have left Alaska since 2015. The remaining insurer told the state it cannot commit to continuing in the market, due to the high cost of providing care for a small population with rare and costly medical conditions. Without relief, the insurer would have had to pass on the cost to 23,000 Alaskans - or would have had to pull out of the state altogether, leaving those Alaskans without healthcare insurance options. - More...
Monday PM - June 06, 2016