The Ides of Immunity The Ides of Immunity March 15, 2021 Dear Friends and Neighbors, There's nothing like a weekend of financial disclosures and tax prep to make the newsletter a day or two late. I'm not whining. I got up to speed on bills we'll hear this week, too. Hope you got out in the sunshine - it's snow shovels again today! Sen. Revak and I speak on the floor, wearing purple in honor of Ashley Johnson-Barr Day. Vaccines We’re number one! Alaska has the top vaccination rate in the country. That lets us be the first state to make all adults eligible for a COVID vaccine. Our public health folks have put in year of insanely hard work to make it happen. Of course, we wouldn't be here without partners: Tribal, military, and VA providers around the state have been rock stars getting so many Alaskans vaccinated fast. Special thanks in our region goes to Bartlett and SEARHC. They’ve taken amazing care of the people and communities of Southeast. They’re also keeping the Capitol safe. Bartlett is caring for a coworker with COVID as I write this, and SEARHC provided vaccines to start immunizing Capitol workers. We still need to stay safe: masking, keeping six feet apart when we can, and washing. With diligence and a little luck, we'll get our work done without any more infections. And please get your jab, too! SEARHC is poking arms in Haines, Skagway, and Gustavus. The next CBJ mass clinic is listed in the events below. Check in with your favorite pharmacies for an appointment. Let's put this whole thing behind us! SB 79 For many years, our state has honored service-disabled veterans with a free hunting and fishing license. It's a lot like the permanent license we issue to Alaskans over 60, but that one also includes trapping. A Juneau resident who lives with a disability he got during his military service asked me to equalize them. I introduced SB 79 to do just that. While only a small number of service-disabled veterans buy a trapping license each year, it's an acknowledgement with real value for Alaska veterans. The numbers are small enough the bill won't hurt the proud North American tradition of having hunters, fishermen, and trappers pay the costs of wildlife management. And the thanks to those who were injured in the service is more than worth it. The bill gets its first hearing this afternoon. I'll host a town hall with Reps. Hannan & Story tomorrow. Please call in to get updates, answers to your questions, and to share your ideas. G.O bond We’ve been digging into the governor’s proposed General Obligation Bond bill in the Senate Transportation Committee lately. I support sending a bond package to voters for approval this year. It will fund vital projects for safety and economic development around the state. Plus it means jobs for Alaskans. But the governor’s proposal needs a lot of work. To start with, a bunch of ideas in the bill are just flat out unconstitutional. The Alaska constitution limits bonds like these to a very few things, including "capital improvements." Our Supreme Court has already ruled on this: a “capital improvement” in a G.O. bond has to be a physical, lasting thing. Attorneys general through the years have written opinions that day-to-day maintenance doesn't clear that bar. But the governor threw in a bunch of surveys, studies, and minor repairs. It's one thing to bond for a whole project, from design to ribbon-cutting. But design alone doesn't cut it. And in a state with billions of dollars of deferred major maintenance needs like roofs and foundations, I'm bumfuzzled to see stuff like a $14,000 septic tank on his list. The biggest single part of his proposal is the yearly match money for two years' worth of federally-funded transportation projects. Those should be paid for in the budget like normal. Otherwise we'd be using an extraordinary funding source for annual costs. And bonding for the match doesn't make any extra federal funds available. Or make it come any quicker. If we're going to ask Alaskans to pledge the full faith and credit of our state for the first time in a decade, it should be for something more than spreading two years of annual needs over 20 years of payments. (I wonder if maybe the notion is to take credit for 'cutting' the budget gap without doing anything less or raising any revenue? Naaah, what am I thinking? That'd be cynical. Forget I mentioned it.) Then there’s where the projects are proposed. We all benefit when every part of our state does well. Regions don’t sink or swim on their own. In a state as connected as ours we buoy our neighbors up or pull one another down. With 5% of the population here in Northern Southeast, we’ve got about half a percent of the projects. That won't work. We have important needs in our piece of Southeast, and I’m working to make sure we meet them. Time to Testify Speaking of funding essential state services, the Senate Finance committee takes public testimony on the budget this week. Do you care about school funding? Keeping DMVs open? Mental health and addiction treatment? Troopers? Let the Finance Committee know. You can call in to testify on Thursday March 18 at 9am. To testify, you must be signed up by 10:30am. If you have a Juneau phone number, call 586-9085. If you have a non-Juneau number, call 844-596-9085 All my best, Did someone forward you this newsletter? Did you fall into it through the series of tubes? Want more? SUBSCRIBE Events & Happenings Around District Q Juneau COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Sign up TODAY, March 15th at noon – then mark your calendar! The next CBJ Vaccine Clinic will be March 23rd they have 1000+ vaccine doses check it out here as the state has expanded eligibility. Juneau Community Theater Theater at Latitude 58 presents The Last Five Years, a funny, touching musical. He tells his story forward in time and she tells hers backwards, for a love story where they only meet once. It runs two weekends - opening night is this Friday! Tickets here. Haines Living with Bears March 21st as the snow melts so comes the bears – knowing Haines to be bear country tune into this presentation by ADF&G to learn more here. Skagway Kanopy Movie Club “Boy” you better not miss out on this critically acclaimed film by Taika Waititi – Skagway Public Library is hosting a conversation on March 24th – find more info here. Read Across Juneau This month help JEA honor Alaska Authors and join in these different StoryPaths – upcoming one is March 19th – 21st - Shanyaak’utlaax: Salmon Boy at the Auke Lake Trail – learn more here! Is there an event in our district I should know about? Please call or email! Snail Mail? Alaska State Capitol Room 419 Juneau, AK 99801 Call: 800 550 4947 907 465 4947 Email Me! ‌ ‌ ‌ Contact My Staff: Edric Carrillo 907 465 6419 [email protected] Cathy Schlingheyde 907 465 6827 [email protected] CJ Harrell 907 465 4947 [email protected] Senator Jesse Kiehl | Alaska State Capitol, Rm. 419, 4th Avenue & Main Street, Juneau, AK 99801 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Customer Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]