Speeding Ahead & Crawling Along Speeding Ahead & Crawling Along February 5, 2022 Dear Friends and Neighbors, Happy February! As the latest rainstorm blows in, things at the Legislature are ticking along. Read on for some fast-moving bills (and a slow one, too.) Chatting on the floor with one of our excellent Senate Pages, Luma Diaz! One Shot Wonders Some bills take a long time. That can be good. Many are complex and Alaskans need time to weigh their implications. But some bills are simple fixes and can move through the process at a good clip. We moved two of those in the Transportation Committee this week, each in just one hearing. The first bill lets people donate money for Department of Transportation signs. The Legislature does the naming, one way or another. But under the current rules, no matter how popular the honoree or how many donors want to name a road or bridge or building after them, cash for the sign has to come out of the public purse. As a result, some facilities still don't have signs. (The ferry terminal in Auke Bay, for instance, has been named in honor of legendary Juneau truck driver and nice guy Frank Palmer since 2011 without actually saying so.) SB 168 lets communities or organizations contribute instead. The other bill adds a definition of electric bicycles to Alaska law. It doesn’t create any special rules (or extra ones.) It just says e-bikes, under certain power limits, count as bicycles. Some folks thought the current law wasn't clear, and it wouldn't make sense to regulate them like a Vespa or a personal mobility scooter. HB 87 still lets local governments set their own rules about local paths. These two bills should just keep rolling forward. Good legislation like this doesn't take too long, and it gives the Capitol a good name. Discussing the merits of a bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee with Sen. Shower. A Long and Winding Read Now that we’ve talked about the simple, quick bills, let’s talk about SB 9. It rewrites our alcohol licensing laws, which (so far) takes 124 pages. It's been in the legislative process in one form or another for nine years. It’s… complicated. Alaska's current alcohol laws are arcane to the point of being byzantine. Through many decades, exceptions got carved out, tweaks got made, new business models were created or crushed, and there are several Alaska lawyers who make most of their living helping people figure out the rules. The first thing SB 9 does is rationalize the mess so people can understand it. Good. The substance of the bill needs a little context. Remember that the end of Prohibition didn't end Americans' concerns about the harm alcohol abuse does. So we regulate it to protect lives, health, and safety. Part of that -- pretty much since Prohibition ended -- was preventing any one part of the alcohol business from becoming too colossal. So our rules are built on a three-tiered system: makers, distributors, and retailers all have separate lanes, by law. Like many other states, Alaska goes further by capping the number of bars, liquor stores, and restaurants that can serve alcohol in a given city by population. Those rules hit in Alaska when there were way, way, way more alcohol businesses than the new per-capita limits. That's how Juneau has 16 liquor store licenses, despite having the population to justify 11. (That cap is one per 3,000 people.) The same dynamic applies - with different numbers - for bars and restaurants, too. Here's the thing: capping liquor establishments by population doesn't reduce alcohol abuse, or alcohol-fueled crime. I’ve looked at all the research from advocates and there’s nothing showing per capita limits have any impact. There’s definitely evidence smart zoning laws help. But clustering and quantity are different things. We'll come back to that in a bit. On the good side, SB 9 doesn't just make the law readable. It also makes a lot of excellent policy changes. Enforcement gets easier, which makes it more likely to actually happen. Keeping alcohol away from kids gets easier and more effective, too. The bill also loosens some of the strictures that have stifled change in the eating and drinking sector. Consider: elsewhere in the country there are brewpubs galore, but Alaska has only two. In most of America you can carry a drink from a hotel bar back to your hotel room, but not here. Elsewhere in the country a winery or brewery can have a tasting room off-site, using industrial land to make products, but selling it in much smaller retail areas (with their higher rents) -- Alaska has said no. In many states you can have a beer when you watch a movie, but not here. Widening some of the narrow lanes in our current law will let most of those things happen here if a business can make money at it. And I have little doubt that with some breathing room, Alaskans will innovate ideas nobody's come up with yet. Unfortunately, the bill keeps all the population-based caps in place, and even makes one of them much tighter. As SB 9 reads today, a community could only get one brewery tasting room license per 12,000 people. Juneau has four right now, with our population of about 31,000, so we'd have another category where we're over the new cap. A beer from a brewery is not four times more dangerous than a beer from a bar. But there's another issue: when a city is over its cap, the cost of buying out somebody else's license gets added to the cost of trying to start a new business. Much of Alaska's resistance to innovation in this arena has, historically, come because the state made bar owners buy tremendously expensive licenses before they could start up. Those folks understandably don't want to see the value of their government-mandated license diminished. But that's not what government regulation is for. Adding mandatory costs and protecting the people who had to pay them don't protect anyone's life or health. They don't promote public safety. Doing away with problem is a bigger, costlier, more Gordian knot than SB 9 can untangle or cut. But we don't have to make it worse. SB 9 will be on the Senate floor this coming week. It still has to make it through the House this year. I hope we can clean it up before it hits the governor's desk. Welcome Back! I want to take a quick moment to give thanks for the health of my colleague, Representative Ron Gillham. Thanks to the tremendous medical pros who worked on him at Bartlett and in Anchorage, he’s back at work after a heart attack last week. We should also thank his wife, who got him help in the nick of time. The key takeaway: don’t ignore the warning signs! (They can be different for women.) And welcome back, Ron! 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 Tonga Relief Join me in helping those affected by the volcanic eruption and tsunami that hit Tonga Saturday and Sunday – drop off locations and items are here. Juneau Quilled Come to the City Museum for an exhibition of Kirsten Shelton’s art built around the rainforest we live in. Juneau Pour the Love: Cabin Fever The four Juneau breweries are joining forces in another bid to bring goodwill and support community projects! All through February, stop by and enjoy special brews to help build a new public use cabin at Eaglecrest. Juneau Wearable Art Extravaganza! A community staple is back and this time they’re wading in deep. The theme is “Oceanic Overtures.” Don’t miss out on this whimsical runway show happening Feb. 12th and 13th. Haines Winterfest Feb. 26th the winter games return! The Olympics will be over, but we’re talking about fun at the Southeast Alaska State Fairgrounds – games followed by a cookoff and potluck! Haines Discovery Kits Get to the Haines Library and check out your discovery kit to open up a world of fun! Haines River Talk Come listen to stories on the theme “Lost and Found.” Seven speakers, seven stories, seven minutes, 7:00, for $7. Plus live music and more -- happening Feb. 17th at the Chilkat Center for the Arts. Haines Blind Dates The Haines library has books and movies in mystery wrappers for the month of February. Check one out, read or watch it, and if you submit a review you can win fabulous (chocolate) prizes! Skagway Chocolate Making For the 10-12 year-old set: Make and wow your friends and family with a “healthy” serving of chocolate. Learn how - Feb. 11 at the Library. Gustavus Mending Fix it, repair it, upcycle it – bring your clean items, tools, and whatchamacallits. Experts will be at the Gustavus Community Center to help on Feb 19th. (The chainsaw sharpening workshop is 2-3 pm!) 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, the people who power the work: Edric Carrillo 907 465 6419 [email protected] Cathy Schlingheyde 907 465 6827 [email protected] Senator Jesse Kiehl | Alaska State Capitol, Rm. 419, 4th Avenue & Main Street, Juneau, AK 99801 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]